Legitimacy Problems of the Global Governance System. Michael Zürn’s theory of global politics

In his post, which originally appeared on Theorieblog, Frank Nullmeier critically examines Michael Zürn’s “A theory of Global Governance”, published in 2018 by Oxford University Press. The “Global Governance System” (GGS), as proposed by Zürn, is based on the exertion of global authority primarily through international organizations, whose political and epistemic authority has grown substantially over the past thirty years, even though they only act within a certain policy area. The consequences are severe legitimacy problems of the GGS. Nullmeier analyses the theoretical implications of such a vantage point, arguing that focusing on normative integration of international organizations comes at the expense of questions of state power, violence, and economic struggles, which are regarded as exogenous. Read the full article in German here.