1 “Note on building effective, legitimate and resilient state institutions” Headline Seminar on Deteriorating Governance

The international donor community has committed itself to assist in “building effective, legitimate and resilient state institutions, capable of engaging productively with their people to promote sustained development ” (OECD – DAC Principles for Good International Engagement in Fragile States and Situations, Preamble). The Paris Declaration of March 2005 in particular addresses the need to deliver effective aid in fragile states and declares as the “long-term vision for international engagement in fragile states (…) to build legitimate, effective and resilient state and other country institutions ” (Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness, point 37).1 This task has normally been seen in terms of practical policies and assistance aimed at enhancing the scope, reach and effectiveness of the state. Because of the stress on capacity building and effectiveness, however, legitimacy, until recently, has had a somewhat secondary position in these debates. It has been assumed that legitimacy will flow primarily from optimizing the input (process) and output (performance) functions of the state. It is clear however, that legitimacy needs much more systematic attention in its ow