The Effects of Self-Legitimation and Delegitimation on Public Attitudes Toward International Organizations: A Worldwide Survey Experiment

Public attitudes toward international organizations (IOs) have become a matter of central concern in real-world politics (e.g., Brexit) and scholarly debates. Building on cueing theory, this paper examines the isolated and (for the first time) the combined effects of IO delegitimation (by governments and citizen protests) and self-legitimation (through statements and reforms) on public legitimacy perceptions of different IOs (the UN, World Bank, and WHO). Pre-registered survey experiments on citizens in ten countries worldwide (Australia, Canada, Colombia, Egypt, France, Hungary, Indonesia, Kenya, South Korea, and Turkey) make this the most generalizable study to date. The main findings are: Delegitimation by governments and citizen protests has some limited effectiveness, depending on the IO in question. While IO self-legitimation statements and reforms in themselves do not boost public support for IOs, they are generally effective at neutralizing delegitimation attempts by governments and citizen protests. This has important implications for policymakers and researchers.