Rethinking Trust and Legitimacy for INGOs Center for War Studies Rethinking Trust and Legitimacy for INGOs Vincent Charles Keating Erla Thrandardottir 13 June 2018

Overview Trust and legitimacy are poorly handled together in the current academic literature Conflated or used interchangeably Casually related with little theoretical consideration They have particular attributes that are simultaneously similar to each other in their effect, yet independent Central research question In what ways are legitimacy and trustworthiness for INGOs similar, different, and related?

Problem 1: Interchangability Used in the same context; little consideration of potential difference NGOs are facing a paradoxical crisis of trust. On the one hand, their external credibility has never been stronger. According to the 2014 Edelman trust Barometer, NGOs are revered globally as the most trusted institution, while faith in governments and corporations has plummeted. On the other hand, more observers are questioning the presumptive legitimacy accorded to NGOs, which claim to hold states and other actors accountable in global governance while their own accountability remains elusive. (DeMars 2015, 3) 12 June 2018

Problem 2: Trust Leads to Legitimacy Several scholars arguing trust is a central element of legitimacy Goddard and Assad (2005): NGOs must build trust to manage their legitimacy Logister (2007): High levels of trust have led to questions about their legitimacy Avant (2010): Trust is necessary to manage legitimacy problems Vestergaard (2014): distrust puts immense pressure on legitimacy In every case, there is a direct correlation made between trust and subsequent legitimacy We argue that this connection is suspect 12 June 2018

What is Legitimacy? Clark (2007): Legitimacy does two things Creates and defines who are relevant actors (rightful actorness) Permits access, power, relevance Creates and defines what actions are acceptable (rightful conduct) Do what degree will an actor obey or resist an institution or rule? Two independent effects – not necessarily tied together Legitimacy expresses both ”a rudimentary social agreement about who is entitled to participate … and appropriate forms of conduct” (Clark 2007, 2) 12 June 2018

What is Trust? The subjective belief or expectation that a particular agreement or nom will be followed or upheld by another actor Can include Calculative elements (rational trust) Non-calculative elements (social and psychological trust) Affects interactions with other actors Cooperation/non-cooperation Degree of hedging 12 June 2018

Trust and Legitimacy at the Extremes At extreme values, trust and legitimacy lead to the same consequences No legitimacy: declining rightful actorness increases the necessity of using bribery and coercion as political tools No trust: increasing hedging activities and potential controls, eventually complete lack of cooperation In both cases, INGOs will be unable to function properly 12 June 2018

Trust and Legitimacy at Non-Extreme Levels Having problems with trustworthiness or legitimacy does not automatically lead to problems with the other INGO with problems of trustworthiness over the successful completion of its mandate is nonetheless legitimate because of the importance of civil association INGO with perfect trustworthiness over the successful completion of its mandate is nonetheless facing problems of legitimacy because of its global representativeness 12 June 2018

The Need to Consider Specific Trust The central problem with the literature is that it speaks with respect to generalized trust X trusts Y at some level z A better way is to consider models of specific trust X trusts Y to do Z at some level æ 12 June 2018

Example of Specific Trust Does an American liberal trust the NRA? In a survey situation, probably not But what is the domain of trust? To fulfil their political wishes – probably not To represent their members – probably To act within the established rules of liberal democracy – probably To ask simply ‘do you trust the NRA’ is a meaningless question unless the domain of trust is added 12 June 2018

Reuniting (Specific) Trust and Legitimacy Trustworthiness affects legitimacy only if the domain of trust is the same as the domain of legitimacy This is important, because increases in trustworthiness in other domains will not affect the legitimacy of the organization INGOs, transparency measures, and the developing world Transparency measures might increase trust in the certain domains, but it will not increase NGO legitimacy if the central domains of legitimacy have to do with representativeness 12 June 2018

Center for War Studies 12 June 2018