Showing papers on "Legitimacy published in 1970"

Dimensions of Political Alienation

Abstract: In recent years there has emerged in this country a radical questioning and rejection of established political institutions unparalleled since the Civil War in its intensity and scope. One objective indicator of this trend since World War II is the marked rise in voluntary renunciation of American citizenship, an act which represents the formal and final estrangement of the individual from his former political ties. Available evidence suggests that estrangement from the polity is also widespread in countries throughout the world as fundamental questions are being raised about the legitimacy of political institutions and political leadership.Attitudes toward the political system have long been a concern of political scientists. Major orienting theories of the political system suggest that citizen support plays a crucial role in determining the structure and processes of political systems. Almond and Verba, for example, use the concept “civic culture” to refer to a complex mix of attitudes and behaviors considered to be conducive to democratic government. Easton underscores the fundamental importance of attitudes for system stability, focusing especially on “diffuse support” as a prerequisite for the integration of political systems. He suggests that “(w)here the input of support falls below [a certain] minimum, the persistence of any kind of system will be endangered. A system will finally succumb unless it adopts measures to cope with the stress.”The conversion of these general theoretical ideas into systematic empirical theory requires further rigorous and comprehensive analyses of types of citizen support and the development of empirical indicators for this domain.

In Defense of Anarchism

Abstract: In Defense of Anarchism is a 1970 book by the philosopher Robert Paul Wolff, in which the author defends individualist anarchism He argues that individual autonomy and state authority are mutually exclusive and that, as individual autonomy is inalienable, the moral legitimacy of the state collapses

The Legitimacy of the Business Corporation in the Law of the United States, 1780-1970

Abstract: These three essays deal with public policy with respect to the business corporation in the United States from 1780 into the 1960's. They trace the development of the business corporation from the time it was treated as a matter of special privilege to the end of the nineteenth century when corporation became available to all qualified applicants under general legislative and simple administrative procedures. After public and legislative acceptance of the corporation, the twentieth century was faced with the task of adjusting the corporation to the general demands of public policy. This study develops in great detail the tenet that the corporation must be legitimate, that is, that it must be both useful and responsible. To this end, specialized bodies of regulatory law have been created outside the law of corporate structure. These essays reflect almost two hundred years of public policy concentrated on making the corporation a ""legitimate instrument of business energy and ambition."" They include full documentation with detailed references to all relevant legal materials. Their examination of the legitimacy of privately organized power is the most complete study of this important force available.

The Representation of Citizens by Political Authorities: Consequences for Regime Support*

Abstract: Representation is a matter of linkage. In this paper it is argued that a useful handle can be gained on the problem of identifying and measuring representational relationships empirically by viewing representation as a type of support linkage between members of political systems and the authorities. To conceive representation as a type of support linkage is to direct attention primarily to the represented rather than the representative. Representational relationships have functional significance for political systems particularly because they are linkages which involve members' satisfaction-dissatisfaction with the behavior of the political authorities—linkages which reflect the degree to which members feel that the performance of the authorities “stands for” or “re-presents” their own interests; and this performance satisfaction-dissatisfaction presumably makes a contribution to more general support for the political system. In contrast to legitimacy sentiments, which are independent of immediate outputs from political authorities, members' perceptions of representational linkages between themselves and the authorities depend on their affective responses to outputs, encompassing not only instrumental performance satisfactions, but (and most commonly among the membership in general) symbolic performance satisfactions as well. This paper reports an exploratory investigation of a construct for measuring sense of representation. The sample consists of a group of students enrolled at the University of Iowa—including, in order to ensure adequate variation on the support scales, a number of students arrested for participating in a protest demonstration against the presence of Marine recruiters on the University of Iowa campus.

Personality and Conformity: The Learning of Political Attitudes

Abstract: Why do some men embrace society's values while others reject them? Is conformity a general trait, more uniformly manifested by some people than by others? What social or psychological forces lie behind the tendency to conform or deviate? Although these questions obviously have significance for the conduct of political life, they have received far less attention from political scientists than from scholars in other disciplines such as psychology and sociology. In view of current challenges to the legitimacy of existing political institutions, the mounting debate over the acceptable limits of protest, and the growing disdain for democratic decision-processes shown by some segments of the population, the need for political scientists to understand the nature and sources of conformity and deviation has become, if anything, more urgent. We hope, in the present paper, to explore the psychological—and to some extent the social and political—meaning of conformity and deviation as reflected in citizen responses to political beliefs. To that end we shall review briefly the present state of psychological theory and research on conformity behavior; suggest, in light of our own research findings, some ways in which current psychological explanations might be modified and extended to account for conformity and deviation within the mass public; and furnish data that might help to explain why individuals who have different personality characteristics and who occupy different roles in the society are likely to accept or reject political norms.

A Possible Explanation of Rousseau's General Will

Abstract: A “general will” is a philosophical and psychological contradiction in terms; will is a conception understandable, if at all, only in terms of individual actions. The problem cannot be glossed over by attempting to reduce the general will—as did T. H. Green—to a “common ego,” or to an analogical forerunner of Kant's pure practical reason. Why, then, did Rousseau make so unviable an idea the center of his political theory, and why has that idea continued to receive serious attention?The general will has continued to be taken seriously because it is an attempted (though not explicit) amalgam of two extremely important traditions of political thought, which may be called, roughly, ancient “cohesiveness” and modern “voluntarism.” Political thought since the 17th century has been characterized, among other things, by voluntarism, by an emphasis on the assent of individuals as the standard of political legitimacy. One certainly finds this in many of the most important thinkers between Hobbes and Kant; and even Hegel, while scarcely an “atomistic individualist” or a contractarian, explicitly argued that while “in the states of antiquity the subjective end simply coincided with the state's will,” in modern times “we make claims for private judgment, private willing, and private conscience.” When a political decision is to be made, Hegel continued, “an ‘I will’ must be pronounced by man himself.” This “I will,” he thought, must have an “appropriate objective existence” in the person of a monarch; “in a well-organized monarchy, the objective aspect belongs to law alone, and the monarch's part is merely to set to the law the subjective ‘I will’.” If even Hegel allows this voluntarist turn in his own non-contractarian theory, it goes without saying that all of social contract theory can be seen as the supreme example of voluntaristic ideas.

Race and Compliance: Differential Political Socialization

Abstract: A major focus of research on the political socialization of young children is inquiry into the development of attitudes and behavior patterns important for the maintenance of a political system. One conceptual element of a political system is the regime, the decisional and administrative structures, "together with the rules of the game or codes of behavior that legitimate the actions of political authorities and specify what is expected of citizens or subjects."' This research investigates children's orientations to a norm of regime "support," the behavioral expectation of compliance to authority figures. The understanding of regime supports and their antecedents is clearly of enduring importance, but it seems especially critical in a period of rapid political change. In contrast to even the very recent past, the amount of support-and hence the level of compliant behavior-manifested by some major segments of the American public may be questioned. In particular, the black community is alleged to be increasingly alienated from and decreasingly supportive of the on-going system. That blacks are becoming less supportive and that this may be importantly related to childhood experiences is increasingly suggested in the literature. Black children may be "undergoing some important new generational experiences" due to unrest in the Negro ghettos.2 Indeed, it may be that one manifestation of the growth of militancy and the decline of "accommodation" evidenced in the black community3 would be a decline in the black child's view of the legitimacy of an authority figure, expressed by a decline in his desire to comply to that authority's commands. Data from the National Opinion Research Center's 1960 national survey, analyzed by Marvick, shows that there appears to be "a level of caution and distrust among Negro Americans toward representatives of the law with whom they have

Premarital Female Sexuality in Morocco

Abstract: In the Arab world, the study of “illegal” and/or “anomalous” sexualities have disturbed the political powers. Indeed, studying these sexualities as social phenomena is a way to recognize their existence and the difficulties faced by the religious authorities to limit sex to the marriage institutions. Therefore the study of these sexualities could become an ideological weapon to contest the Arab/Islamo political power legitimacy.

On Violence and Legitimacy

Abstract: Violence is more than an assault on our bodies. An act is violent because it comes unbidden, contrary to my will, inflicting on me or threatening me with what I feel to be an injury. I can suffer violence to the limits to which I extend myself; violence done to my wife, to my self-respect, or to my country is violence done to me. The psychological dimension of violence is clearly revealed in references to \"violent emotions\" or to \"violent attacks\" which are purely verbal.' The same phenomena, moreover, do not seem violent if we welcome or are indifferent to them. A romantic might call his strongest emotions \"profound\" rather than violent; a dullard may be unaffected by our most acid sallies; what is rape at one time is making love at another; and even euthanasia does not seem \"violent\" because it is presumed to be in accord with the will of the patient. Violence need not make an appearance to be real; it is most effective when invisible. The most frequent form of violence, the threat, is only a promise, and the promise itself may be no more than a hint or suggestion, as when we \"speak softly, but carry a big stick.\" The action itself is not the test of violence; what matters is my evaluation of it. A threat is not violent, for example, if I do not believe you will carry it out; and if I think your big stick is a cane, I will take your soft words as a sign of weakness. In fact, it is possible to inflict violence unintentionally, as when I attack someone I do not know you love, or when what seem to me harmless words or actions cause associations in your mind which touch some deep-seated anxiety. As the foregoing suggests, violence itself cannot be rejected as immoral. Violence is \"immoral\" only to the degree to which the will opposing it is good. The shortcoming of violence as a form of power is that it is limited and is always the creature of the self it would command. Violence is \"foreign\" in that it speaks from outside what I perceive as myself.2 Violence cannot change my values and desires; it can

The Social Contract and the Idea of Sovereignty in Rousseau

Abstract: An organic character in the work of most great thinkers makes it extremely difficult to isolate a part and explain it without multiple references to the whole. This problem is, I believe, especially acute in the case of Rousseau, and a failure to recognize it is the probable cause of so many unsatisfactory and even absurd interpretations of his basic principles. As he said, "All my ideas hang together, but I cannot expound them all at once."'1 In this article I propose to present some of the interrelations that closely unite Rousseau's ideas on the social contract, sovereignty, moral or political obligation, and on one aspect of the general will. Because of the organic nature of his thought, a comprehensive analysis in article form is impossible. For example, no attempt has been made to include his detailed justifications of the positions given below, and his treatment of various kinds of freedom has been omitted. It is hoped, however, that this article will help the reader to deal more satisfactorily with some of the simplistic interpretations of Rousseau's work. In the religious tradition of the West the idea of sovereignty was well known even if under other terms. God's will, whether interpreted voluntaristically or not, was binding law from which no appeal could be taken. In this sense sovereignty implied legitimacy and morality as distinguished from naked force. By analogy Bodin invested the king with this property. But since the right inherent in the idea of sovereignty seemed too dangerously absolute, he rather unclearly limited it by natural law. With a more rigorous logic Hobbes removed all limitations, though it must be added that he believed that the sovereign would in fact be limited by pragmatic considerations. Since there is no distinction between sovereign de facto and sovereign (le fure, this version reduces moral

Violence and the Rule of Law

Abstract: Robert Paul Wolff has recently defended a position which he calls "philosophical anarchism."' Such a position, based upon the belief that the concept of legitimate political authority is incoherent, entails that there is no special political problem of justifying violence. It is commonly argued that individual violence is prima facie immoral in two ways: (1) it harms someone, and (2) it violates the prima facie obligation to obey the law. It is Wolff's contention that (2) is incoherent and thus irrelevant. Now on the whole I accept much of what I take to be the ideology of Wolff's paper. He quite rightly points out that "violence" is a highly emotive term-used sometimes to condemn the status quo but most often to condemn those who, using the only means at their disposal, attempt to overthrow the status quo. Thus we should be suspicious of those who are always ranting and raving about violence. We should at least suspect their motives. The question of whom and what we should be suspicious, however, is a question of political ideology and commitmentnot a question of philosophical analysis. And it is Wolff's attempted analysis of violence which strikes me as both superficial and wrong. His argument seems in part to be that, since the appeal to legitimate authority to condemn violence is often a rationalization for political repression, there are no occasions when such an appeal could be both coherent and correct. This is an argument to show that all reasons here are really rationalizations; and it has, in my judgment, no more to commend it than the argument from illusion (we are sometimes deceived; therefore perhaps we always are) which it formally resembles. Wolff is, I think, quite right to locate the problem of violence within the general context of the problem of legitimate political authority. The man who asks, "Is violence ever justified?" is generally asking whether it is ever morally right to use force outside the context of such authority-perhaps even against such authority. But Wolff claims that this way (and thus any way) of looking at the question is ultimately incoherent for the following reason: the notion of legitimate political authority is itself incoherent. But is it? Wolff is inclined to argue that, since we clearly cannot accept classical democratic or social contract theory, no other possible theory of legitimacy is forthcoming. But there is surely at least one alternative to such a hasty decision: we might think about the issue some more. If we did some more thinking, we might get some interesting results and advance political theory a bit. For example, we might ask ourselves what moral point someone (uncorrupted by political ideology or philosophical theory) might be trying to make when he condemns political violence. My guess is that he would, at a minimum, be trying to avoid the utterly superficial decision procedure which Wolff provides us for questions of obedience to law: "If the law is right, follow it; if the law is wrong, evade it" (p. 611). This view strikes me as superficial for the following reason: the maxim stated is not, in Kant's sense, universalizable. Let me explain. As Kant would argue, a man has not acted morally unless he can state an appropriate principle in defense of his action. And appealing to principle involves, at a minimum, a tacit willingness on the part of the agent that others may act in a similar way in similar circumstances. Otherwise the agent will be (unjustly) claiming for himself a liberty he would not extend to others. "But I am willing," Wolff might reply, "to allow everyone to evade immoral laws." But this, alas, is too simple. For what we

Unjustifiable Means to Unjustifiable Ends: Delegitimizing Parliamentary Gender Quotas in Tunisia

Abstract: The Tunisian government, since independence in 1956, has been a major factor in creating and maintaining space for the women’s movement both in the domestic and political spheres. The state has been the chief agent of change, not only in introducing legislation, but also in seeking to alter the productive and reproductive roles of women (Murphy, 2003) – a process which has been mirrored in other states throughout the Middle East under the blanket term of “state-sponsored feminism” (Murphy, 2003, p.169; Brand, 1998, p. 9). The process of “instigation from above” (Hatem, 1999, p. 78) has both secured the state’s support of women’s right as well as transformed gender into a political instrument. The women’s movement in Tunisia enjoys the ideological and financial backing of the government, and has become part of a political strategy to enhance the legitimacy of the state. In short, the caprices (and benevolence) of President Ben Ali’s ruling Rassemblement Constitutionnel Democratique (Constitutional Democratic Rally, RCD) have come to define the scope and magnitude of the rights of women, a process through which the feminist agenda has become closely (and dangerously) tied to the ruling party’s political agenda.

A roko tui for Lomaiviti: The question of legitimacy in the Fijian administration 1874–1900

Abstract: (1970). A roko tui for Lomaiviti: The question of legitimacy in the Fijian administration 1874–1900. The Journal of Pacific History: Vol. 5, No. 1, pp. 3-31.

The Ideological Persuasion of Chiang Kai-Shek

Abstract: In July 1928, upon the termination of the Northern Expedition, Chiang Kai-shek presented a sacrificial message to the departed leader, Sun Yat-sen, whose body reposed in the Pi-yun Temple outside the city of Peking. Sun had committed his life, Chiang declared, to the attainment of eight tasks in the rebuilding of a new China: (1) the explication of the Kuomintang's principles and the expunging of ‘unorthodox views’, (2) the constructing of a unified party through the curbing of individual freedom and the acceptance of party discipline, (3) the transfer of the national capital to Nanking to symbolize a new beginning for the nation, (4) a purposeful change in the ‘heart’ of the citizenry, (5) the psychological, economic, political and social reconstruction of the nation, (6) the disbanding of troops, (7) the termination of civil strife and a total commitment to national defence, and (8) the speedy introduction of local autonomy. These personal commitments—and public admonitions, as they were also meant to be—covered a wide range of national concerns, dealing as they did with ideology and organization, power and legitimacy, political socialization and national integration. It is noteworthy, however, that Chiang at the moment of personal triumph turned his attention above all to the ideological function of the ruling elite in the transitional Chinese society.

Full Circle in Dahomey

Abstract: On May 7, 1970 the Fourth Dahomean Republic was inaugurated following a series of developments that snatched political stability from the jaws of civil anarchy, turned back the clock ten years, and gained the small West African state two questionable distinctions: the continent's first collegiate presidency and Africa's first head of state to bounce back to power after being toppled by the military. As secession and civil war threatened the country following the aborted March 1970 elections, Dahomey had just completed a tortuous tenyear cycle of acute instability, during which every possible combination of political forces had tried and failed to govern the country. The political triumvirate of Dahomey--Ahomadegbe, Maga, and Apity--maintained a tight electoral stranglehold over their respective tribal fiefs in Abomey, the North, and Porto Novo, buttressed by their traditional claims to legitimacy. Intense regionalism and ethnic exclusiveness, dating to the precolonial era and perpetuated by the French administration, mitigated against the emergence of durable interregional political alliances. The period 1958-1965 was characterized by shifting coalitions between the three leaders that collapsed almost as soon as they were created as a result of continuous intrigues, plots, and jockeying for sole power (for a detailed analysis of this period, see Thompson 1963, Decalo 1968).

The Politics of Defection: The Changing Contours of the Political Power Structure in State Politics in India

Abstract: he Fourth General Elections held in February 1967 constitute a watershed in the post-independence political history of India. The monolithic Congress regime and its haloed leadership had concealed both the many operational weaknesses and the basic inner strength and resilience of the Indian system. While strongly reaffirming the people's deep involvement in the democratic process, the electoral verdict shattered the Congress Party's virtual monopoly of political power. It also exposed the artificiality of the political stability, democratic maturity and parliamentary sophistication at which the system had appeared to be operating. Results of the fresh elections held in five of the seventeen States in February 1969 only carried the process a stage further. The most important developments in the post-1967 political and parliamentary scene in India were the formation of coalition governments of widely heterogeneous elements in several States and the numerous defections on the floor of the State legislatures which affected the fate of ministries and the course of politics. This phenomenon, the politics of defection as it is commonly called now, has several psychological and socionomic dimensions and is closely related to the dynamics of human relations and leadership processes. In the present paper, an endeavor has been made to study it objectively, as a psycho-sociological reality, in terms of simple political legitimacy and constitutional legality and in the context of some of the more identifiable legal, political and psychological variables in order to understand its motivations, implications and consequences and more particularly its impact on the problems, processes and prospects of parliamentary democracy in India. Of the sixteen States of the Union that went to the polls in 1967 (there were no elections in Nagaland) the Congress Party did not gain an absolute majority in eight and failed to form the government in seven. Even in those States in which the Congress retained control, its strength was much depleted and in several cases defection by a few members changed the Party's legislative majority into a minority. In seven of the eight States where Congress failed to win an absolute majority, however, no single party took its

Ex-Combatants at the Polls : Exploring Focus Groups a Electoral Meaning

Abstract: This paper investigates the meaning attached to elections among ex-combatants in Liberia, in relation to the historic elections of 2005. These elections were generally considered successful, and should therefore be instrumental in the consolidation of democracy; this paper investigates the extent of such consolidation that can be seen in their wake. In particular, the meaning attached to elections is described in terms of voting behaviour and motivation, as well as the application of the equality principle, and finally in relation to the perceived legitimacy of the elections, based on focus group discussions carried out in the spring of 2008 in Liberia. This paper also tries to gauge the advantages and disadvantages of using focus groups as a data collection method. The creation of trust in a well designed focus group, which given the field of research – post-conflict context – may be especially important. The conclusions presented in this paper point to problems vis-a-vis the legitimacy of the elections which may have long term implications for the consolidation of democracy in Liberia. However, other areas, in particular attitudes towards vote buying, show more positive tendencies.

Control, cohesion and consumption: constructing young people through participation and citizenship

Abstract: This article examines participation as a "discursive fact". Using the framework of Foucault, it explores the importance of participation and citizenship as "ordering concepts" in the New Labour project. Moreover, it argues that participation is part of a wider discourse of control, cohesion, and consumption. By de-politicising participation, New Labour serves to enhance its own legitimacy. This is the logical outcome of government as systems of thought and action. Youth and community practitioners also objectify youth, exercising similar discursive power in their own work. Putting participation into practice thus presents a challenge for workers, as they are required to recognise their power and to exercise it in a reflexive way.

Colonial Feminists from Washington to Baghdad

Abstract: In the few months preceding and following the occupation of Iraq, several US-funded Iraqi women’s NGOs were established in Washington. Their hastily staged birth was deemed necessary to engage “important voices which were missing from the debate – those of Iraqi women with personal experience of Saddam Hussein's oppression.”2 It was a last minute rush to provide the much-needed moral legitimacy to the immoral invasion.

El recorrido conceptual de la “opinión pública”: de ideal político a objeto de control institucional

Abstract: This paper tries to analyze the process in which public opinion, a philosophical notion born as a political ideal during the Enlightenment, turns into an operative and pragmatic concept, systematically observed and functional for the empirical polling research in the first decades of the 20th century. The meanings that this concept acquires have indeed social consequences which imply the inclusion or exclusion of certain groups who use expressive ways of different political legitimacy. This process will let us understand the conceptual trajectory of public opinion just before the notion is ready to become a polling research object.