Liquid authority and political legitimacy in transnational governance

Abstract

In this article we investigate the institutional mechanisms required for 'liquid' forms of authority in transnational governance to achieve normative political legitimacy. We understand authority in sociological terms as the institutionalized inducement of addressees to defer to institutional rules, directives, or knowledge claims. We take authority to be 'liquid' when it is characterized by significant institutional dynamism, fostered by its informality, multiplicity, and related structural properties. The article's central normative claim is that the mechanisms prescribed to legitimize transnational governance institutions - such as accountability or experimentalist mechanisms - should var..