Legitimacy and disappointment in fisheries management

Go-management, i.e. the democratic participation of user-groups in regulato ry decision-making, is expected to improve the legitimacy of fisheries mana gement schemes. This, again, is assumed to result in a higher degree of fis hers' compliance. But what if co-management fails to produce this outcome? Legitimacy should not be anticipated regardless of institutional design of comanagement. This paper critically examines the meaning of legitimacy and which institutional designs of fisheries management regimes are conducive t o legitimacy. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.