The Public’s Role in Politicizing International Issues: Why Multilateralism Needs to Take Public Opinion More Seriously

Abstract

The aim of this article is to introduce a framework that expands our understanding of the power of public opinion in influencing decisions at the multilateral level, with particular focus on the relationship between public opinion and legitimacy of international institutions and IOs. The framework traces how multilateral issues evolve from having high consensus to being highly contested, or vice versa. The progression and pathways become clear when public contestation is disentangled from elite contestation. Further, it argues that the faster pace of issue politicization is aided by the political ecology dominated by social media, as compared to the period when news media were the public’s main source of information on international matters.