Public views on international organizations (IOs) have become a matter of central concern. While actors in world politics increasingly try to legitimize or delegitimize IOs, scholars have begun investigating such phenomena systematically. This paper provides the most comprehensive IO (de)legitimation study to date. Building on cueing theory, and considering input as well as output legitimacy, I examine the isolated and combined effects of delegitimation and self-legitimation on public perceptions of IOs. I concentrate on government criticism and citizen protests as two salient practices of delegitimation. In investigating self-legitimation, I focus on IOs’ public statements and institutional reforms. I study public opinion on the UN, World Bank, and WHO, as IOs of different functional scopes and levels of salience. In 2021, I conducted survey experiments on more than 32,000 citizens in ten countries worldwide (Australia, Canada, Colombia, Egypt, France, Hungary, Indonesia, Kenya, South Korea, and Turkey) – weighted by age, gender, region, and education. My main findings are: Delegitimation by governments and citizen protests has some limited effectiveness, depending on the IO in question. While IO self-legitimization 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.

中文翻译：

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自我合法化和非法化对公众对国际组织态度的影响：一项全球调查实验

公众对国际组织（IO）的看法已成为人们关注的焦点。尽管世界政治中的参与者越来越多地试图使国际组织合法化或非法化，但学者们已经开始系统地研究此类现象。本文提供了迄今为止最全面的 IO（取消）合法化研究。基于线索理论，并考虑输入和输出的合法性，我研究了非法化和自我合法化对公众对国际组织认知的孤立和综合影响。我主要关注政府批评和公民抗议，这是两种重要的剥夺合法性的做法。在调查自我合法化时，我重点关注国际组织的公开声明和机构改革。我研究了公众对联合国、世界银行和世界卫生组织的舆论，这些国际组织具有不同的职能范围和显着程度。 2021 年，我对全球 10 个国家（澳大利亚、加拿大、哥伦比亚、埃及、法国、匈牙利、印度尼西亚、肯尼亚、韩国和土耳其）的 32,000 多名公民进行了调查实验——按年龄、性别、地区和教育程度进行加权。我的主要发现是： 政府和公民抗议的非法化效果有限，具体取决于所讨论的国际组织。虽然国际组织自我合法化声明和改革本身并不能提高公众对国际组织的支持，但它们通常可以有效地消除政府和公民抗议的非法化企图。