This book investigates the strategic motivations behind the creation and empowerment of international parliamentary institutions within global governance structures. Frank Schimmelfennig and his co-authors utilize a rationalist institutionalist framework to argue that states establish these bodies primarily as a mechanism for strategic legitimation. By analyzing the functional and political requirements of international organizations, the authors demonstrate how parliaments serve to bridge the democratic deficit and enhance the perceived authority of supranational entities.

Scholars in the field of international relations identify this work as a significant contribution to the study of institutional design and democratic legitimacy in global politics. Readers frequently note the academic density of the prose and the rigorous methodological approach applied to the study of international parliamentary bodies.