The decreasing legitimacy of non-governmental organizations in world society: evidence from the United Nations General Debates, 1992–2019

Recent studies have paid attention to the crisis in the liberal order and the illiberal backlash in world society. As central actors in that society, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have not been spared from this backlash and are increasingly challenged in various national and transnational contexts. By analysing changes in NGO-related discourse in United Nations General Debates between 1992 and 2019, we investigate how the general legitimacy of NGOs has evolved during the post-Cold War era. The results show that NGO-related discourse has decreased since the turn of the millennium in most issue areas and geopolitical regions and reveal that negative sentiments towards NGOs have increased since 2015, driven by illiberal and authoritarian governments. While there is thus an explicit backlash against NGOs, it is occurring in the context of a longer-term decline of NGO legitimacy both outside and inside the traditionally liberal Western core of world society.