Nonstate actors play powerful roles in global governance institutions (GGIs) as advocates, experts, representatives, regulators, monitors, and implementing agents. However, the extent to which their inclusion affects the degree to which citizens find GGIs more legitimate has not been systematically investigated, nor have the conditions under which citizens might do so. In this contribution, we theoretically argue that such inclusion effectively enhances the social legitimacy of GGIs, but only to the extent that citizens expect nonstate actors to provide relevant governance contributions. We find strong empirical evidence for this argument in two large-N conjoint experiments fielded in Brazil, Germany, South Africa, and the United States. First, our results suggest that citizens, on average, ascribe more legitimacy to GGIs if learning that nonstate actors have a say in important decisions. Second, the strength of this effect depends on the degree to which citizens expect nonstate actors to provide expertise, representation, public interest orientation, transparency, or operational capacity. Third, expected governance contributions remarkably vary among different types of nonstate actors in kind and degree. In line with our overall argument, findings suggest that nonstate actor participation plays a more complex and significant role in the social legitimation of global governance than previously understood.

中文翻译：

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非国家行为体的包容性和全球治理机构的社会合法性

非国家行为体在全球治理机构 （GGI） 中发挥着强大的作用，包括倡导者、专家、代表、监管机构、监督者和执行者。然而，他们的纳入在多大程度上影响公民认为 GGI 更合法的程度尚未得到系统调查，公民这样做的条件也没有得到系统调查。在这篇文章中，我们从理论上论证了这种包容性有效地增强了 GGI 的社会合法性，但仅限于公民期望非国家行为者提供相关治理贡献的程度。我们在巴西、德国、南非和美国进行的两项大 N 联合实验中发现了这一论点的有力实证证据。首先，我们的结果表明，如果公民了解到非国家行为体在重要决策中拥有发言权，则平均而言，他们会赋予 GGI 更多的合法性。其次，这种影响的强度取决于公民期望非国家行为体提供专业知识、代表性、公共利益导向、透明度或运营能力的程度。第三，不同类型的非国家行为体的预期治理贡献在种类和程度上存在显著差异。与我们的总体论点一致，研究结果表明，非国家行为体参与在全球治理的社会合法性中发挥着比以前理解的更复杂和更重要的作用。