Unsettled Legitimacy: Political Community, Power, and Authority in a Global Era

by Steven Bernstein

Globalization has challenged taken-for-granted relationships of rule at all levels. This unsettling of legitimacy raises some serious questions. Under what conditions do individuals and communities accept globalized decision making as legitimate? And what political practices do individuals and collectivities under globalization use to exercise autonomy?

To answer these questions, the contributors to Unsettled Legitimacy explore the disruptions and reconfigurations of political authority that accompany globalization. Arguing that we live in an era in which political legitimacy at multiple scales of authority is under strain, they show that globalization has also created demands for regulation, security, and the protection of rights and expressions of individual and collective autonomy within and across multiple political and geographic spaces. Instead of offering simplistic arguments for or against global governance, enhanced democracy, or economic integration, the contributors provide a sophisticated examination of the complexities of legitimacy and autonomy in a globalizing world.

Coleman is professor and Center for International Governance Innovation Chair in Globalization and Public Policy at the Balsillie School of International Affairs, Waterloo, Ontario.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0774817178
• ISBN13: 9780774817172
• Release Date: October 2009
• Publisher: University of British Columbia Press
• Length: 408 Pages