Showing papers on "Legitimacy published in 1977"

Arab Politics: The Search for Legitimacy

Abstract: "An impressive work of scholarship on the political culture and changing society of the entire Arab world. The author gives us a good picture of each country as he pursues his general themes of legitimacy, nationalism, Arabism, and the inevitable 'modernization.'" -Foreign Affairs

Leadership in Social Movements

Abstract: Two types of leadership styles in social movements are constructed on the basis of closed or open access to the source of legitimacy. Several predictions about structural consequences of the open or closed access are then made. The types are applied to four cases: the Nazis, the Manson Family, the Millerites and Women's Liberation. The hypotheses are confirmed.

Emerging Problems of Citizen Participation

Abstract: Over the last decade and a half the increased activity, involvement, and influence of public interest groups and citizen organizations has become one of the most distinctive features of American administration.' Citizen groups have besieged administrative agencies and courts at every level of government with demands that they be allowed to participate fully in administrative proceedings, that they be given greater access to agency information, and that they be permitted to present any and all evidence in behalf of their interests before appropriate administrative and judicial tribunals. They have skillfully cultivated the press to broaden their appeal to administrative and political officials, established effective, fulltime lobbying organizations, and in some cases have put together sophisticated professional staffs which rival the agencies' own in their ability to grasp the intricacies and complexities of public policy issues. Furthermore, both the participants themselves and knowledgeable observers have predicted that the torrent of citizen suits and public interest activity seen thus far is only a small fraction of the deluge yet to come.2 On the whole, reaction to this surge of citizen participation has been positive. The general assumption is that broadened participation is desirable because it increases the representativeness and responsiveness of our administrative and political institutions, heightens citizens' sense of political efficacy, and acts as an important check on the abuse of administrative discretion. Yet in spite of the proven accomplishments of citizen groups in some policy areas, there is a growing body of data to support the contention that public participation which is automatic, unrestrained, or ill-considered can be dangerously dysfunctional to political and administrative systems. The purpose of this article is to explore the "other side" of the public participation issue * This article analyzes the problems which have accompanied the growth of the citizen participation and public interest movements. The principle problems identified are the potential shortsightedness of the administrative response to citizen demands, problems of representation and legitimacy, the style and tactics of citizen groups, and the absence of sophisticated cost-benefit analysis of public interest policies and programs. The author suggests that public participation which is not carefully ordered and constrained by administrators can lead to poorly conceived, unrepresentative, and costly policy decisions. Administrators are chiefly responsible for the integrity of the administrative process, and sensitivity to citizen demands is no substitute for independent, carefully reasoned, professional judgments regarding the nature of the public interest in each new administrative situation.

Comparative politics: Notes and readings

Abstract: INTRODUCTION: ON COMPARING NATIONS. 1. How and Why Compare. Roy C. Macridis, The Search for Focus. Robert H. Bates, Area Studies and the Discipline. Mark Blyth, Interests and Ideas. Robert D. Putnam, The Public Role of Political Science. PART ONE. POLITICAL CHANGE AND THE STATE. 2. Modernization/Globalization. Karl Marx, British Rule in India. Samuel H. Beer, Dynamics of Modernization. Ronald Inglehart, Modernization and Postmodernization. H. V. Savitch, What is New About Globalization? 3. State and Identity. Max Weber, What is a State? Theda Skocpol, Bringing the State Back In Liah Greenfeld, Varieties of Nationalism Donald L. Horowitz, A Right to Secede? 4. Governing Globalization. John Gerard Ruggie, Territoriality and Beyond. Jurgen Habermas, Nation-State or Global State? Anne-Marie Slaughter, Everyday Global Governance. Marc F. Plattner, Sovereignty and Democracy. 5. Revolution and Protest. S. N. Eisenstadt, Frameworks of the Great Revolutions. Francois Furet, On Revolutions: French, American, and Russian. Kurt Schock, Nonviolent Action. Bernard E. Brown Revolution and Anomie. PART TWO. PATTERNS OF LEGITIMACY. 6. Democracies. Susan J. Pharr, Robert D. Putnam, and Russell J. Dalton, Trouble in the Advanced Democracies? Russell J. Dalton, Susan E. Scarrow, and Bruce E. Cain, The New Politics in Advanced Democracies. Bernard E. Brown, Worker Democracy: A Test Case 7. Transition to Democracy. Guillermo O?Donnell, Horizontal Accountability in New Democracies. Thomas Carothers, The End of the Transition Paradigm. Larry Diamond, Universal Democracy? 8. Authoritarianism: Old and New. Aristotle, On Democracy and Tyranny. Andrew C. Janos, What Was Communism? Lilia Shevtsova, Bureaucratic Authoritarianism in Russia. Andrew J. Nathan, Authoritarian Resilience in China. 9. The Challenge of Islamism. Lisa Wedeen, Beyond the Crusades. Walter Laqueur, The Terrorism to Come. Fareed Zakaria, Islam, Democracy, and Constitutional Liberalism. PART THREE. POLITICAL DYNAMICS, DECISIONS, AND EFFICACY. 10. Political Parties. Robert Michels, The Iron Law of Oligarchy. Richard Gunther and Larry Diamond, Species of Political Parties. Seymour Martin Lipset, The Americanization of the European Left. Piero Ignazi, The Rise of New Political Parties. 11. Do Institutions Matter? James March and Johan Olsen, Institutional Perspectives. Arend Lijphart, Constitutional Design for Divided Societies. Nathan J. Brown, Judicial Review. 12. Political Performance. Joel D. Abernach and Bert A. Rockman, Governance and Outcomes. Herbert Simon, Organizations and Markets. Graham Wilson, In a State? Robert A. Dahl, Equality vs. Inequality.

The Production of Cynical Knowledge in Organizations

Abstract: The term "cynical knowledge" is used to describe the understanding by members of an organization that presumably altruistic procedures or actions of that organization actually serve the purposes of maintaining the legitimacy of existing authority or preserving institutional structure. This paper explores the processes by which organization members obtain cynical knowledge. A study of the priests of a larger American archdiocese offers evidence that discrepancies in their belief systems, associated with age, can be explained successfully by an understanding of the role that cynical knowledge plays in an organization dependent upon commitment to altruistic ends. In any institution characterized by a strong belief system, authority relationships may be threatened to the degree that cynical knowledge is acquired by participants early in their careers. Such breakdowns of authority relationships may become more common with the organizational changes now occurring in many professional organizations.

The Statutory Law of Slavery and Race in the Thirteen Mainland Colonies of British America

Abstract: W x r r hen Rhode Island legislators began the gradual statutory abolition of slavery in their state in I784, they declared in a preamble that slavery "has gradually obtained [in Rhode Island] by unrestrained custom and the permission of the laws."1 This pithily restated the accepted explanation of the legal origins of slavery in the American states. To create slavery by law it was not necessary, as United States Supreme Court Justice John McLean later observed, to pass legislation providing "that slavery shall exist"; and no such statute was ever adopted in any American jurisdiction.2 Rather, as an anonymous Garrisonian abolitionist maintained in a retrospective survey of the statutory law of slavery in the British American mainland colonies, the legal origins of slavery are found in "the provincial legislative acts, which establish and sanction the custom [of slaveholding] and stamp it with the character of law."3 "Provincial legislative acts" did in fact validate and regulate many customary elements of the legal relationship between white and black people in the colonial period. Historians, judges, lawyers, and others have recurred to them for nearly two centuries, sometimes to prove the legitimacy of slavery, sometimes to mine materials for proslavery or antislavery propaganda, sometimes to illustrate details of colonial life, but seldom for the purpose of examining the ways in which law affected colonial society as a

Cover-Up and Collective Integrity: On the Natural Antagonisms of Authority Internal and External to Organizations

Abstract: This paper traces the roots of organizational cover-up to the sources of collective integrity. It develops a perspective on tensions between the vitality of authority within organizations and the penetration of moral authority respresenting the external society. In the white-collar ranks of formal organizations, persons construct authority to govern internal relations by shielding members from external scrutiny and by declining to force members to accept their responsibilities according to externally defined norms. Accepting these practices as proper, external authorities recognize the legitimacy of a collectivity's moral autonomy. I examine several forms of shielding and non-enforcement practices, noting each for each: how it builds authority to integrate the collectivity by weakening the penetration of external authority; uses of the method routinely accepted as legitimate by external authority; and how members may drift from legitimate uses to illegitimate “cover-ups.” I also discuss some implications for the study of white-collar deviance and the experience of complicity in occupational life.

Observations on Political Legitimacy in Contemporary Europe

Abstract: Before, during, and immediately after World War II, the viability of states was much discussed in political literature. Recently, however, that issue has waned as the international community has lowered its threshold requirements and definitions of what constitutes viability. States that would formerly have been deemed nonviable by virtue of their small size, awkward and indefensible frontiers, or meager human and material resources, are now normally and as a matter of course subsidized and sustained by the international community. Corresponding to this process in political life, there has occurred a simultaneous shift in the focus of political theory and political analysis away from the question of viability, and toward the issue of legitimacy as particularly important and problematical. The attention currently devoted to this problem of political legitimacy stems in part from a widespread sense that the contemporary state, while viable enough in terms of that older concern and its newer standards, is nevertheless somehow out of phase with the world's travails-seemingly too small and weak to solve such global issues as inflation, yet apparently too big and remote to evoke that cathartic trust, identification, and admiration of its subjects which the state requires if its political system is to function. This essay probes some of the problems-of theory and of policy-confronting state authorities in contemporary Europe as they seek to achieve, sustain, and enhance their always vulnerable legitimacy.

Bureaucratic Manipulation of Physical Symbols: An Empirical Study

Abstract: Unobtrusive observation is utilized to examine physical symbols of "authority" and "service" in four governmental agencies operating in Illinois; namely police departments, public health departments, drivers license examining stations, and Armed Forces recruiting offices. Hypotheses as to the relative frequency of these symbols are developed from a concept of contrasting outpiut roles based on varying needs of organizations to (1) impress incoming clients with their legitimacy and (2) attract clients who are not forced to use the organization's outputs. The data largely support these hypotheses and reveal marked differences in the ways the agencies manipulate symbols.

Television Viewing and the Perception of Affluence

Abstract: Paralleling research on the effects of television on cognitions regarding violence, this study examines the effects of television on perceptions of the extent of affluence in the United States. Television's frequent portrayal of America as a highly affluent society suggests that perceptions of affluence are positively related both to amount of television viewing and to perceived veracity of television, and that the effects of television viewing are strongest among persons who attribute the greatest veracity to television's depiction of American life. An analysis of survey data provides little support for these hypotheses. Although moderately strong positive relationships exist between affluence perceptions and both amount of television viewing and perceived veracity of television, these zero-order relationships are spurious associations accounted for by class-related variables, especially education. The ubiquity and mass popularity of television during the last three decades have prompted many empirical studies of the effects of television on cognitions, attitudes, and behaviors. The great preponderance of this research has focused on the possible effects of televised advertisements, political messages, and, especially, violence and aggression (see, e.g., Schramm, 1954; Schramm et al., 1961; Weiss, 1968; Surgeon General's Scientific Advisory Committee, 1972; Baker and Ball, 1969; Feshback and Singer, 1971; Liebert et al., 1973; Howitt and Cumberbatch, 1975; Hartnagel et al., 1975; Teevan and Hartnagel, 1976; Gerbner and Gross, 1976a). The purpose of this study is to extend such research by exploring the impact of television on beliefs about the extent of affluence in American society. Perceptions of affluence-and the social reality they reflect-have important implications for the legitimacy of the existing social order. Lipset (1960) has noted that social stability depends not only on economic development but also on the effectiveness and legitimacy of political institutions. Effectiveness refers to actual performance, while legitimacy refers to the ability of a system to engender and maintain beliefs that existing institutions are the appropriate ones for the society. Although analytically distinct, however, economic development, effectiveness, and legitimacy are increasingly intertwined in industrialized societies. This overlap of economic development, effectiveness, and legitimacy is especially evident in the United States. A central tenet of the dominant American ideology is the belief that America is a land of unprecedented material abundance. The roots of this ideological strain reach far back in the American experience; the cornucopia has long been a national symbol. Only during the last

Martial Law in the Philippines: The Methods of Regime Survival

Abstract: The Philippines was the latest of the colonially inspired experiments in constitutional democracy within Southeast Asia to succumb to a palace coup. Because the Filipino citizenry had a longer experience in the uses of competitive elections, a free press and an independent judiciary than did the other peoples of the region, the demise of such institutions holds a special fascination for the scholar and is regarded as a special tragedy by all those who love freedom. Martial law was declared by President Marcos on September 2I, I972, more than halfway through his second, and constitutionally final, four-year term. He has clung to power beyond that term by utilizing for purposes of gaining legitimacy the transitory provisions of the I973 Constitution. That document was drafted in the Presidential palace, adopted by the Constitutional Convention under duress, and "ratified" by voice vote in village assemblies where armed soldiers and policemen were in prominent attendance. Though a majority of the Supreme Court regarded this ratification as invalid, there was not a majority to declare the new "Constitution not in force."' Some writers, including Marcos and his apologists, have described what happened in the early i970's as the "failure of Philippine democracy." But that is a distortion of the realities of that period. Filipino democratic institutions did not break down, either in the sense of an inability to maintain order or a failure to respond to changes within the society. The rising political violence after i969 was to a considerable degree the creation of Marcos himself, first in trying to get himself re-elected and then in preparing ajustification for martial law.

Policy Analysis: Myth or Reality?

Abstract: In the September 1967 issue of Public Administration Review, Yehezkel Dror called for the development of a new professional mission called policy analysis.1 In May 1974, the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration (NASPAA), in issuing its first guidelines for member schools, identified policy analysis as one of five major subject areas which should be included in all public affairs programs.2 Thus in only seven years, policy analysis moved from proposition to reality, from a "fringe" idea to a central place in official public administration thinking. This rapid acceptance of the legitimacy of policy analysis is one of the most remarkable developments in modern public affairs. The purpose of this article is to present an overview of policy analysis that may shed some light on its growth. The article is divided into two parts: (1) current views of policy analysis what it is and what its intellectual and pragmatic root are; and (2) an assessment of the state of policy analysis how these problems might enhance American governance.

Is Japanese Education Becoming Less Egalitarian? Notes on High School Stratification and Reform.

Abstract: That public education during the last century, especially since 1945, has been an important source of upward mobility in Japanese society is a virtually uncontested element in our picture of modem Japan, and compared to the rigidity of Edo Period arrangements and their attitudinal legacies this interpretation is undoubtedly correct. The image of the poor, but bright lad who graduates from Tokyo University and eventually wields great power remains widely popular. Most certainly this quite romantic portrait serves to color the impression the average man has of Japan's leaders. This notion, in turn, colors his view of such matters as governmental authority, the character of the Japanese elite and, in fact, the very legitimacy of Japan's modem structure. Educational achievement is not only an avenue to elite status in Japan, it is a widely applied measure of character, ability, and modern virtue. The formula "ability + hard work = educational achievement = elite status" is a powerful one in Japan and its power hinges on the assumption that public education provides a very high degree of equal opportunity. In this paper I will discuss several aspects of the question of educational equality as it existed in postwar Japanese cities to date and as it appears to be changing under the influence of certain reforms in the high school system.

John Kabes of Komenda: An Early African Entrepreneur and State Builder

Abstract: The flowering of the Atlantic trade in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries caused many of the West African societies of the near hinterland to orient themselves increasingly toward the coast This new focus created new geopolitical conformations Given the nature of the stimulus, trade and politics went hand in hand and entrepreneurial ability could reap political rewards These possibilities were greatest along the Gold Coast and in the Niger delta where the actual European presence was small in relation to the extent of the tradeSuch a trader cum political leader was John Kabes who, in a career spanning nearly forty years, established the paramount stool of Komenda, hitherto part of the inland state of Eguafo Kabes began as a trader for the English (and sometimes for the Dutch) and gradually achieved political status which, however it may have been acquired, proved to be lasting because it was acceptable to existing political moresSuch of Kabes's activities as are known suggest that his success sprang from his ability to wring advantage from the new exigencies of the time and place in ways which enabled him to acquire legitimacy as well as wealth and influence Although Kabes's career is uniquely documented there is no reason to suppose that it was particularly unusual in its other facets On this argument it can suggest ways in which other West African trade-derived polities, particularly in the Niger delta, may have coalesced

Social meanings of terrorism: Reification, violence, and social control

Abstract: Terrorism as a force in social and international relations appears to some as a relapse into barbarism, a peculiar and dismal aberration of civilized life, and a step backward in the conduct of war. Whether terrorism as a way of settling disputes is better or worse than what preceded it is a value question that cannot be adequately addressed here. Most changes or innovations in war tactics have been regarded as “unfair,” “sneaky,” or “unsporting” upon their introduction, but circumstances usually force their acceptance and the sophistication of violence escalates. When set against the tapestry of a thousand years of military history, terrorism can be seen as a tactic frequently employed by both governments and individuals. It is modern industrial society's increased vulnerability to this form of violence which makes it appear so horrendous, and subjects it to moral indignation [27]. In a behavioral sense, official and individual terrorism achieve similar results, although governments usually have greater resources on hand. It is above all a reified conception of governments, nation-states, and the legitimacy of official terrorism that permits the social meaning process to function as it does, i.e. individual terrorism is condemned as morally repugnant, while official terror is accepted as severe but necessary. With this bifurcation in mind, the sociologist has a choice — banish the term,terrorism altogether since it amounts to little more than moralized name-calling, or save the concept since it does in fact make an important distinction between types of violence, and apply the term even-handedly to both governments and individuals.

Neo-authoritarianism and the problem of legitimacy: A general study and a Nigerian example

Abstract: Neo-authoritarianism and the problem of legitimacy : a general study and a Nigerian example

Authority and Community: The Contributions of Carl Friedrich, Yves R. Simon, and Michael Polanyi*

Abstract: The problem of authority has a practical and a theoretical side. Practically, the decline of authority contributes to the crisis of legitimacy in contemporary governments and to difficulties in the practice of morality. Theoretically, authority is often confused with power, force, or coercion. Thus, it is viewed with suspicion. The thesis of this paper is that authority is not a form of power; rather, it transforms power. Like power, force, and coercion, authority is directive, but it is so in quite a different way. An examination of the concept of authority in three very different theorists – Carl Friedrich, Yves R. Simon, and Michael Polanyi – reveals that a sound concept of authority must be rooted in community as a system of shared beliefs, experiences, and traditions and in transcendent standards referred to by such beliefs, experiences, and traditions. Authority is that which directs a community to its proper end.

Identity and Transcendence

Abstract: Who does not know what identity is? It has become the motto and emblem of our era, the dominant cultural theme. Whatever "it" is, it is desperately sought, ecstatically asserted, often defiantly exhibited. It is both deeply personal and openly public. While we might studiously trace its genealogy to clinical papers by Erik Erikson in the 1940s, this would not bring us close to its current usage, despite the fact that cultists of identity deftly cite Erikson chapter and verse to gain legitimacy. It is my contention that the abundant analyses and confessionals on identity will likewise not bring us close to its elusive nature, since they are expressions of the very problem that needs elucidation. That is, the nature of identity is presupposed. Very simply, identity is assumed to be contained in the ritualized answer to the question "who am I?" Personal continuity of meaning and relationship is no longer taken for granted but demanded through heightened self-consciousness. A cluster of related terms constitutes the core of an invariant, stereotypic answer to the question of who-ness: roots, self-esteem, belonging, attachment, community, authenticity, order, simplicity, restoration, security, safety, innocence, purity, expiation, boundaries, naturalness, certainty. Moreover, this cluster is called into service by such diverse claimants to identity as ethnicity, religion, race, polity, region, sex, age, social class, American nativism. But neither set of terms is explanatory. By attempting to locate them within the cultural system of contemporary America, we may uncover their meaning. To do this it is necessary to ask, how are they systematically related to one another? What deeper meanings do they both symbolize and obscure? We may thereby begin to understand why, of all questions that might be asked, "who am I?" is the one so unceasingly posed. Identity consciousness is an attempt to close the abyss of self-doubt and confusion. This state of mind has come to characterize the culture itself.

Participation, Individual Differences, and Job Satisfaction Among Black and White Employees in South Africa

Abstract: The moderating effects of perceived legitimacy of participating and of higher-order need strength on the relationship between participation and job satisfaction was examined in a sample of 62 black and 71 white clerks in South Africa. The black subjects had significantly stronger higher-order needs. The re were no differences between the black and white subjects in perceived legitimacy and the extent of perceived participation in decision-making. The participation-satisfaction relationship was significantly higher among the black subjects. It is argued from path-goal theory that the stronger participation-satisfaction relationship among the black subjects derives from their greater job involvement and their more ambiguous work roles in South Africa.

Self-Image, Legitimacy and the Stability of Elites: The Case of France

Abstract: Why do some elites endure whereas other die? This is a question to which many historians and social theorists have addressed themselves in trying to explain the severe conflicts that have plagued particular societies. It is, of course, a truism that certain societies are more prone to conflicts and to instability than others. But even within such societies there often lies, beneath the all too evident turbulence, a considerable stability of certain groups and institutions. The change that occurs in the wake of crises often distributes its impact on different sectors of society so unevenly that sweeping changes sometimes completely by-pass, or are successfully resisted, by certain groups. The result is that some groups and institutions manage to preserve their dominant positions and their privileges even while the society as a whole is experiencing crises, instability and change.

The legitimacy of educational knowledge: a neglected theme in comparative research

Abstract: I want t o ask how we come t o accept certain arrangements of educational knowledge in schooling systems as legitimate and how these legitimated curricula are sustained through time in selected nations; in what circumstances and for which groups in such nations fresh arrangements of the stock of knowledge are most likely t o occur, and how such educational changes are related t o the broader social context. The general issue of the legitimacy of educational systems, or parts thereof, has been raised by such writers as Illich, Freire, Reimer, Friedenberg and Goodman, Holt, Herndon, and Kozol for contemporary audiences. And the broad theme of the socialization functions of formal schooling systems has been of concern t o sociologists at least since the writings of Marx, Weber, and Durkheim. However, this particular theme the role of educational knowledge in the socially based construction of consciousness and the relation of this educational knowledge t o different social systems has been (despite the earlier work of Karl Mannheim) rather recently raised as problematic. University-based academics, drawing mainly from European traditions of thought, especially in the sociology of knowledge, phenomenology and varieties of Marxism, have regenerated the topic as central t o the problem of cultural transmission. Philosophers and social critics, such as Jurgens Habermas and Raymond Williams; sociologists such as B. Bernstein, P. Bourdieu, Ioan Davies, P. W. Musgrave, and Michael F. D. Young; anthropologists such as R. Horton and Mary Douglas; and some comparativists such as J. A. Lauwerys, Martin Carnoy, and especially M. Scotford-Archer, Michalina Vaughan, and Richard D. Heyman have all participated in this shift in perspective. Inside this perspective, the particular question asked here focuses upon educational knowledge the kinds of knowledge selected from the general knowledge stock t o be institutionalized in schooling systems. How does i t , in particular forms, become valued and sustained; in what circumstances does it become changed; and what does a cross-national comparison of such processes and contents suggest about the reciprocal relationships between educational knowledge, social change, social consensus, mobilization and the division of labor? In many instances, the data requisite for such an analysis are not available. Even when data are available, the problems of a multidisciplinary analysis for one country are considerable; as a comparative exercise in a short paper the task is of severe difficulty. And until a more thorough theoretical and documentary analysis has been done on a n initial basis, the value of detailed empirical surveys seems doubtful. As a consequence, the analysis that follows is speculative, from

Language and the Legitimation Problem

Abstract: There are numerous ways to approach the legitimation of power in industrial societies. We shall treat the legitimation process as a communicative task addressed to the mobilization of members ' commitment to the goals and institutionalized allocations of resources that translate social goals into daily conveniences, rewards, and punishments.1 Along these lines we can formulate a first gloss on the legitimation problem in the following terms : the legitimacy of any political system requires that (i) its members have access to the channels whereby social goals arc articulated (ii) that to varying degrees, members are aware of and feel entitled to exercise their rights in the translation of subjective needs into specific and local allocations of institutional resources and (iii) that members' troubles with the determinate processes of resource allocation establish prima-facie claims for reforms at level (ii) or change of goals at level (i). The interrelationship or loop-effect between the prccccding processes represents a normative formulation of the legitimation process as a communicative community. Whenever there are gross faults in the articulation of goals, access to means, deprivation of rights, in short, where there are practices of misinformation, false consciousness, and ignorance, as well as forceful exclusions, we may speak of repressive communication.2 In strictly normative terms, the practices of repressive communication lower the legitimacy of the political system. In practice, however, they may well contribute to its integration as a system o (power. The preceding propositions stand as a gloss or idealization upon the communicative processes they seem to describe inasmuch as they are perfectly elliptical with respect to the endogenous orders of practical reasoning, expressions, and displays that accomplish the mundane work of legitimation. The fix on the problem of order which appears through the functionalist metaphors that tie these propositions consists solely in the result that such talk cannot fail to locate the sources of order and disorder as an aesthetic product of its own speech. Moreover, the same aesthetic bias rules conflict theory which otherwise claims a more adequate grasp of the problem of order. Rather than reject these first approximations, we treat them as providing for a reasoned conjecture with respect to the problem in hand whose sensible nature otherwise remains for study as the situated and endogenous communications through which members provide for the work of political legitimation.3 In view of the intractability of the separation between ethical and repressive communication that may nevertheless integrate the political system, we are obliged to reconjecture the legitimation problem as the communicative task of maximizing the ethical probability that the political system will mobilize commitment, apart from consideration of members' actual beliefs and loyalties, and in ways that are recognizable resources of rule and participation.