The NGO Involvement in International Governance and Policy: Sources of Legitimacy (Nijhoff Law Specials)

Paperback, xi + 234 pages, NOT ex-library. Creases along the edges of front cover, creased lower outer corner of front cover. Moderate creases to corners of first leaves. Book is clean and bright throughout with unmarked text, free of inscriptions and stamps. Firm secure binding; straight spine free of vertical creasing. -- Internationally operating nongovernmental organisations, NGOs, are increasingly involved in international politics and policy making. In many respects their involvement resembles activities and policies that, until recently, were typical of traditional national authorities. This book is about the reasons for which NGOs can and the reasons for which NGOs cannot be considered as rightful participants in international governance. It tries to deliver rationally defensible starting points for the discussion and the assessment of claims for the legitimacy of their organizations and activities. The book focuses on the question: What conditions must ideally be met for an organization to be called truthfully legitimate, be it or be it not as a matter of fact perceived as legitimate by the public? This does not mean that empirically descriptive questions are left aside. Practical feasibility is important even to a thoroughly normative conception of legitimacy. For that reason and for heuristic purposes, large parts of this book are dedicated to the ways in which NGOs and stakeholders perceive NGO legitimacy. -- Contents: Questioning the legitimacy of non-governmental organizations / Anton Vedder [NGOs; Legitimacy; Reasons for NGO involvement; NGO legitimacy questioned; Towards a concept of NGO legitimacy; Advantages and limitations of the approach of this book]; Perceptions of the legitimacy of international NGOs / Vivien Collingwood & Louis Logister [Main questions and objective; Selection of NGOs; Autumn 2004 - Spring 2005: Contacting and interviewing NGOs and stakeholders; Implications and limitations of the method; Issues arising from the interviews with NGOs; Is legitimacy a pressing concern?; Why is there a debate about the legitimacy of NGOs?; Sources of NGO legitimacy; Challenges for the future; Illustration: Stakeholders' views]; Internet activities of NGOs and legitimacy / Anke van Gorp [Selection of Internet NGOs; Method of website analysis (NGO website activities: Information - Interaction - Mobilization - ICT-related activities; Legitimacy and NGO websites: Regulatory & Social & Moral dimension); Results; Conclusions; Some specific normative legitimacy issues (Reliability of information on NGO websites; Interaction using the Internet)]; A step beyond: technologically enhanced interactivity and legitimacy / Corien Prins [Interactive digital tools (Games and digital simulation; Recommender systems); Implications for NGO legitimacy (Legitimizing effects of digital tools; Legitimate use of digital tools)]; Regulatory legitimacy of the role of NGOs in global governance: legal status and accreditation / Peter van den Bossche [Rules on the legal status of NGOs (United Nations; UNCTAD; UNEP; WHO; ILO; World Bank; IMF; WTO); Rules on the accreditation of NGOs]; What makes an NGO 'legitimate' in the eyes of states? / Menno T. Kamminga [Domestic legal personality; European Convention on Human Rights; European Convention on the Recognition of the Legal Personality of NGOs; Fundamental Principles on the Status of NGOs in Europe; Implementation of the Fundamental Principles; Consultative or similar status; United Nations; Withdrawal and suspension of UN consultative status; Council of Europe; Complementary approach: Self-regulation by NGOs; Codes of conduct; Coalitionbuilding]; Towards a defensible conceptualization of the legitimacy of NGOs / Anton Vedder [Normative versus empirical or legal conceptions of legitimacy; Reconsidering the three legitimacy dimensions; Specific character of legitimacy as a criterion; Legitimacy of NGOs and the legitimacy of the global order; Summing up]; Bibliography; Index.