Peace Operations and Legitimacy: A Proposal for a Legitimacy Market Index

This article introduces the concept of the Legitimacy Market (LM) and develops the Legitimacy Market Index (LMI) to assess the impact of UN peace operations (POs) on host-state legitimacy. Conceptually, the LM defines legitimacy as an arena of competition for recognition as rightful authorities. Methodologically, the LMI reorganizes six indicators from the Bertelsmann Transformation Index and Fragile States Index to measure whether such competition expands or contracts. Applied to six African cases as an exploratory sample, findings reveal substantial variation: some peace operations narrowed competition over legitimate authority, while others failed to prevent its persistence despite improvements in state capacity.