While there is broad consensus that non-governmental organizations (NGOs) sometimes succeed in influencing policy-making within international organizations (IOs), there is much less agreement on the factors that make NGO lobbying effective. In this article, we make two contributions to this...

Social legitimacy is central to the effectiveness of international organizations (IOs). Yet, so far, we have little systematic knowledge about what drives citizens to support or oppose IOs. In this article, we isolate and assess three alternative explanations of social legitimacy in global...

The recent growth in research on "good governance" and the quality of government institutions has been propelled by empirical findings that show that such institutions may hold the key to understanding economic growth and social welfare in developing and transition countries. We argue, however,...

The importance of social trust has become widely accepted in the social sciences. A number of explanations have been put forward for the stark variation in social trust among countries. Among these, participation in voluntary associations received most attention. Yet, there is scant evidence...