Global Governance under Populism: The Challenge of Information Suppression

Allison Carnegie, Richard Clark and Noah Zucker

Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation, Working Paper Series from Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation, University of California

Abstract: Populists’ ideological opposition to global governance is well recognized, yet whether and how these actors systematically undermine international organizations (IOs) remains unclear. We argue that a keymeans by which populists warp global governance is by distorting scientific information, which is necessary for global responses to many public health and environmental issues. Populists are motivated to withhold or misreport scientific information due to their anti-elite, pro-state sovereignty views. Using new data on the source and quality of information provided to IOs, we find that populist leaders are significantly less likely to provide scientific information to these organizations than other types of leaders. When they do offer such data, it is less accurate than the information supplied by other sources. Our findings suggest that populism may stymie international institutions’ ability to govern in areas of pressing international concern.

Keywords: Social and Behavioral Sciences; populism; global governance; transparency; information; science (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024-02-14
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