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Legitimizing Private Actors in Global Governance: From Performance to Performativity

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  • Elke Krahmann

    (Department of Economics, Witten/Herdecke University, Germany)

Abstract

Global governance is frequently criticised because of major legitimacy deficits, including lack of public accountability and democratic control. Within this context, questions about the legitimacy of non-state governance actors, such as non-governmental organizations, transnational corporations and private security companies, are neither an exception nor a surprise. Many actors have, therefore, turned to the measurement of performance, defined as publicly beneficial outcomes, in order to gain legitimacy. However, the rise of performance assessments as legitimizing practice is not without problems. Taking global security and health interventions as examples, this article contends that the immaterial, socially constructed and inherently contested nature of such public goods presents major obstacles for the assessment of performance in terms of observable, measurable and attributable outcomes. Performance is therefore frequently replaced by performativity, i.e. a focus on the repetitive enactment of specific forms of behaviour and capabilities, which are simply equated with the intended results. The implications for how global public goods are conceptualized and, ultimately, implemented are profound.

Suggested Citation

  • Elke Krahmann, 2017. "Legitimizing Private Actors in Global Governance: From Performance to Performativity," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 5(1), pages 54-62.
    • Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v5:y:2017:i:1:p:54-62
    DOI: 10.17645/pag.v5i1.773
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Scharpf, Fritz Wilhelm, 2009. "Legitimacy in the multilevel European polity," MPIfG Working Paper 09/1, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    2. John Glenn, 2008. "Global Governance and the Democratic Deficit: stifling the voice of the South," Third World Quarterly, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(2), pages 217-238.
    3. Cheryl Cashin & Lisa Fleisher & Tawab Hashemi, 2015. "Verification of Performance in Results-Based Financing (RBF): The Case of Afghanistan," Health, Nutrition and Population (HNP) Discussion Paper Series 103694, The World Bank.
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    Cited by:

    1. Klaus Dieter Wolf, 2017. "Patterns of Legitimation in Hybrid Transnational Regimes: The Controversy Surrounding the Lex Sportiva," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 5(1), pages 63-74.
    2. Klaus Dingwerth, 2017. "Field Recognition and the State Prerogative: Why Democratic Legitimation Recedes in Private Transnational Sustainability Regulation," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 5(1), pages 75-84.
    3. Melanie Coni-Zimmer & Klaus Dieter Wolf & Peter Collin, 2017. "Editorial to the Issue on Legitimization of Private and Public Regulation: Past and Present," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 5(1), pages 1-5.

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