Degrees of Legitimacy

Abstract This chapter addresses the legitimacy objection to reform intervention (that it is impermissible because it disrespects recipients’ legitimate institutions) and argues that legitimacy should be understood as a scalar quality. The chapter argues that not all reform interventions are vulnerable to the legitimacy objection by showing that not all reform interventions are premised on a denial of recipient institutions’ legitimacy. Some reform interventions treat recipient institutions as one should treat fully legitimate institutions; they may be justified even if recipients’ institutions are fully legitimate. Other reform interventions treat recipient institutions neither as fully legitimate nor as completely illegitimate; they may be justified when recipients’ institutions are partially legitimate. Making sense of this requires adopting a scalar notion of legitimacy, which allows us to account for important global political phenomena that binary variants obscure. The chapter also argues we are morally required to open our own societies to reform intervention.