Elite Legitimation of Regional Organisations Outside Europe: A First Step

In the context of rising contestation over the European Union in times of crises, researchers have so far neglected the development of Regional Integration projects outside of Europe. This is despite the fact that severe crises – politically and economically – have inspired phases of regional disintegration but also integration beyond European borders. Especially these latter phases toward more regional cooperation with greater shifts of authority from the domestic level to the level of regional organizations put focus on the social legitimacy of Regional Organizations (ROs) and processes of their (de)legitimation by domestic actors. While recent studies have shown the complex patterns of (de)legitimation processes by domestic elites in Europe, evidence on legitimation efforts and its effects in other parts of the world is still absent. Based on previous studies on the popular legitimacy of non-European ROs, our study proceeds in two steps. It proposes, first, to map and analyze the (de)legitimation narratives employed by national elites in Sub-Saharan Africa and the MENA region, including the oldest (LAS) and – regarding intervention rights – legally most authoritative (AU) RO. Second, we plan to test the effects of the identified (de)legitimation strategies through an experimental survey design.