Why do citizens want the UN to decide? Cosmopolitan ideas, particularism and global authority

Abstract

Why do citizens support or reject the idea of global authority? The article addresses this question by examining individual attitudes about UN authority in a comparative perspective. Using data from the fifth wave of the World Values Survey (2005–2007), the analysis shows that global public support for UN authority largely depends on a cosmopolitan understanding of global interdependence and moral universalism. However, the analysis of contextual variables also suggests that a “particularist” calculus of national costs and benefits explains citizens’ support for (and rejection of) UN authority to a significant extent. Most remarkably, citizens of powerful states favor UN authority much more than do those from weaker countries – a possible indication that UN authority is expected to further privilege the former to the disadvantage of the latter.