As a prelude to the three themes in the volume, this chapterexplores more generally the turn towards legitimacy in globalgovernance research. The chapter suggests that this turn ispartly explained by shortcomings in normative research onglobal democracy, and the potential of research on legitimacyto overcome those problems. The chapter discusses the meritsand demerits of alternative conceptualizations of legitimacy inserving these purposes. The chapter concludes in favor of anormative-sociological understanding of legitimacy that issensitive to beliefs among members of relevant audiencesabout the normative qualities of political institutions that areultimately specified by analysts