Showing papers on "Legitimacy published in 1985"

Symbolic and Substantive Legitimation in Professional Practice

Abstract: The professions are seen as "experts in legitimation" who take on and resolve the prob- lematic legitimacy of their clients through the technique and rhetoric of practice. The techniques used by the profession to legitimate roles and normatively appropriate behavior for their clients, thereby legitimating their own role, are examined in the context of medical practice. Examples of symbolic and substantive legitimations are given and some implications of public reactions to these forms are discussed. The legitimation of professional institutions is seen in this analysis to pose important theoretical and practical questions.

Policing Nigeria: Control and Autonomy in the Exercise of Coercion

Abstract: Claude Ake (1982: 8, 3), in his Presidential Address to the 1982 Convention of the Nigerian Political Science Association, criticized Nigerian society, politics, and state behavior in damning terms: A predatory capitalism has bred misery, turned politics into warfare and all but arrested the development of productive forces. The Nigerian ruling class has assaulted the masses with physical and psychological violence and thwarted their aspirations, particularly their escape from underdevelopment and poverty. Legitimacy has receded to the background, making way for relations of raw power and the perception of right as being coextensive with might. Ake's views reflect a common perception that the Nigerian state survives by coercion as other means of gaining the compliance of the populace-the capacity to create a legitimating consciousness or utilitarian pay-offs-have proven ineffective, or have been wasted by a rapacious ruling class and its clients. Coercion, of course, means the police and the military. This paper focuses on the control and autonomy of coercion, concretely examined as the actions of the police, in the political economy of Nigeria. Who controls the police and how autonomous are they as an organization and as individuals? The paper argues that the state and the police are relatively autonomous from class control; that the police have interests of their own which will influence both what they do or refuse to do; and that the police are a very weak reed for the ruling class to relay upon.

Policing a divided society: obstacles to normalization in northern ireland*

Abstract: The scholarly literature on the police is deficient in studies of policing in highly polarized societies. Northern Ireland is an ideal case for examining the police role in just such a context. The Royal Ulster Constabulary has played a pivotal role in the Northern Ireland conflict over the past 15 years. This study examines both the major reforms in the force during this period, and the barriers to further progress toward "normal" or "civilian" policing in a deeply divided society I analyze continuing problems of police violence, legitimacy, accountability, and militarization and show how the current system of aggressive, paramilitary policing is perpetuated by a combination of four key factors. Most scholarly research on the police focuses on societies where basic public acceptance of the forces of order is not a major problem. Very few studies have explored policing in deeply divided societies where it is prone to sectarian bias, is often highly militarized, and where at least one major section of the society withholds legitimacy from the police (Ahmad, 1977; Bensinger, 1983; Enloe, 1976, 1980; Frankel, 1980). Even less is known about the conditions under which a highly partisan and repressive police force in such societies can be fundamentally transformed and can, in turn, help resolve instead of aggravate social and political conflicts.

Changing Electoral Patterns in Sierra Leone: The 1982 Single-Party Elections

Abstract: The electoral process in Sierra Leone has changed substantially over the last twenty years from one operating in the context of a competitive multi-party system to one defined by the formal establishment of a one-party state in 1978 with elections under those rules in 1982. The former was often cited as a model of democratic competition; the latter was established to overcome problems the political elite felt resided in multi-party competition. In this sense, Sierra Leone was not unlike many other African states (including Ghana, Tanzania, Kenya, Ivory Coast) which had moved to de facto or de jure single-party systems. The earlier effectiveness of the multi-party system in Sierra Leone, which saw the opposition party defeat the party in power, makes this a particularly interesting case for examining the electoral process in a singleparty context in general. This study focuses on the 1982 election in Sierra Leone and its implications for the political process. Of particular importance are the changes which occurred as the country moved from a political system which fostered competition between parties to one in which electoral competition was to be within the framework of the single-party system. The move to a one-party state had obvious consequences for the electoral process. Less obvious are the implications for electoral competition, campaign strategy, the legitimacy of the government, and the nature of participation in elections. The creation of a one-party state is often seen as an exercise in elite control of the masses (Hermet et al., 1978: vii) with elections functioning as part of the process of manipulation and control (Edelman, 1971; Collier, 1982).

Male and Female Visions of Mediation

Abstract: M ost conf l ic t s -whether among nations, neighborhoods, business associates, or family m e m b e r s are managed by the disputants themselves; increasingly, however, the resolution of conflict involves the actions of third party professionals. Over the past decade, the ranks of practitioners claiming expertise in dispute resolution have swelled. Consequently, as professionals from the law, business, environmental, mental health and academic communities attempt to establish their legitimacy and credibility as mediation specialists, investigation into the nature of the third party role becomes increasingly relevant. The goal of this research is to broaden understanding of the mediatot 's role, clarify central features of the role as envisioned by successful mediators, and extend conceptions of the mediation process itself by comparing the approaches of male and female practitioners. Analysis of sex differences in social thought and behavior has served various purposes in different historical periods. Most recently, with the resurgence of the political women 's movement and the growth of the new feminist scholarship, the study of sex differences has focused on correcting bias in earlier studies and revaluing certain qualities and characteristics that women develop because of their historical position as " the other ," the socio-emotional experts in the family division of labor, the primary caretakers and nurturers of the young (Aries, t977, pp. 292-298; Henley, 1977; Rubin, 1979). In our research, by comparing male and female mediators, we hoped to learn about and describe certain activities, styles, and strategies that would be taken for granted or missed without the comparative frame. We considered gender as a critical variable, therefore, not because sex differences in themselves are important or intrinsically interesting, but because such a focus can enlarge understanding of human behavior and human possibility. We are not alone in this endeavor. Recently, a number of social and political theorists interested in the connection between feminism and pacifism have focused on the ways women and men interpret differences and confront conflict, the mechanisms they use in resolving conflict, and the satisfactions and understanding they derive from the

Administrators and Citizenship The Liberalist Legacy of the Constitution

Abstract: Current concern with founding the legitimacy of the administrative enterprise in a revitalized idea of the public interest leads us to a consideration of the meaning of citizenship in contemporary ...

The serpent beguiled me and i did eat: Entrapment and the creation of crime

Abstract: This paper examines the legitimacy of pro-active law enforcement techniques, ie the use of deception to produce the performance of a criminal act in circumstances where it can be observed by law enforcement officials It argues that law enforcement officials should only be allowed to create the intent to commit a crime in individuals who they have probable cause to suppose are already engaged or intending to engage in criminal activity of a similar nature

From Theocracy To Monarchy:Authority And Legitimacy In Inner Oman, 1935–1957

Abstract: The twentieth-century Ibadi imamate of “inner” Oman (1913–1955) constituted one of the world's last theocracies. In a demise unique for the mid-twentieth century, it became assimilated into one of the world's last absolute monarchies. The 1955 shift from theocratic to dynastic rule met initially with the support, or at least the acquiescence, of most of the tribesmen and notables of the interior. This acquiescence at first appears surprising because the fundamentalist Islamic religious and political principles for which the imamate stood continued to be properly supported. One of these principles for Ibadis was that the imām, the spiritual and temporal leader of the Islamic community, should be the most qualified of available candidates and chosen by a consensus of the community's religious men of learning and notables, a notion markedly at contrast with the ascriptive one of dynastic rule. Conflict between these two forms of rule is basic to much of Islamic political history and to that of pre-1970 Oman in particular.

Authority and Convention

Abstract: All moder states claim authority over their citizens, and that is one thing which distinguishes them from bands of robbers. The most important locus of authority in the state is law, for it claims to bind many persons, to regulate their most vital interests, and to do so with supremacy over all other mechanisms of social control. Sometimes these grandiose claims are hollow. In a society in upheaval they cannot be made effective and quickly become legal fictions. Even when they are effective they may be unjustified, for legitimacy is not among the existence conditions for a state. However and here is the real importance of Weber's celebrated argument a belief in its legitimacy tends to increase its stability and effectiveness. It is therefore a crucial question in what circumstances, if any, such beliefs are justified. In the liberal-democratic tradition, consent has provided the most popular justification for authority, yet its weaknesses are notorious. Hardly anyone does consent to the state's authority, and in any case the theory is incomplete without an independent account of the limits of valid consent. (According to Locke, for example, no one can consent to be killed, and thus not to tyranny, and thus no tyrant has legitimate authority, consent or no.) The runner-up is probably contractarianism. Where that involves an actual social contract, it is simply a version of consent theory, with the requirement of unanimity added. In its hypothetical form, political authority is something that rational people would agree to. But this only shows that there is a reason to do what law requires, not that law itself provides the reason. Dissatisfaction with such arguments has led many where it led Hume: to ground authority in social convention. Furthermore, because such conventions are susceptible to a value-neutral definition, this offers a theory which consorts nicely with the view that law is a matter of social fact. My aim in this paper is to show that, in spite of these several attractions, conventionalism cannot justify the authority which law claims.

Staging media events to achieve legitimacy: A case study of Britain's friends of the earth

Abstract: The article attempts to show how Friends of the Earth, a British public interest group, employs a series of tactics to attract public attention and achieve political legitimacy. The prime focus is placed on the creation of a favorable climate vis‐a‐vis the media. Friends of the Earth has been remarkably successful in this area not only because of the quantity of the coverage but also the positive tone to the coverage. The article goes on to speculate why Friends of the Earth has had such success with the media. The major factors appear to be the theatrical nature of the events staged; the thorough research done by Friends of the Earth; and the media's need for a legitimate spokesman for the ecological movement. The article finally explores the price paid by Friends of the Earth for alienating various actors in the political system. The most significant consequence relates to the bureaucracy which uses the media events as a rationale for dismissing the serious arguments made by Friends of the Earth.

The Equal Rights Amendment as Status Politics

Abstract: A basic status politics explanation of orientation toward the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) is assessed in this paper. Conflicting orientations toward ERA areshown to stem from perceptions that broader personal values, and those concerning gender and parental roles, are in undesirable competition with alternative values in contemporary society. The data, drawn from a metropolitan sampling of adults, confirm the utility of the status politics perspective in accounting for who supports and who opposes the amendment. This paper puts forth and tests a basic explanation of orientation toward the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). The presence of intense feelings, both among those who support the issue and those who oppose it, is shown to stem from a basic clash of values. At a more general level, this involves the perception that broader personal values are threatened; at a more specific level, this centers around the definition and legitimacy of gender and parental roles. Such cultural conflict falls under the rubric of "status politics" in the sociological literature. It arises when a set of established values appears out of joint with changing social conditions. When carried out in the political arena, this type of conflict represents an attempt to assert the cultural dominance and desirability of one set of values over the other. Hence, the status politics perspective provides a framework for explaining why conflicts of this kind emerge and, of particular interest to us here, gives an account of the correlates associated with orientation toward ERA. Status Politics and the Equal Rights Amendment The proposed Equal Rights Amendment states simply, "Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by *Address correspondence to the author, Department of Sociology, University of Oklahoma,

The Meaning of Equality in America

Abstract: In the United States, equality is a recurring theme. It has flared into a fervent moral issue at crucial stages of American history: the Revolutionary and Jacksonian periods, the Civil War, the populist and progressive eras, the New Deal, and the 1960s and 1980s. In each era, the legitimacy of American society is challenged by some set of people unhappy with the degree of equality. New claims are laid, new understandings are reached, and new policies for political or economic equality are instituted. But the equality issue endures outside these moments of fervor. Ideologies in favor of extending equality are arrayed against others that would limit its scope; advocates of social justice confront defenders of liberty. In the moments of egalitarian ascendancy, libertarians are on the defensive. In the moments of retrenchment, egalitarians cling to previous gains. And in either period the enemy is likely to be the "special interests" that have too much power. In egalitarian times, these are the moneyed interests. In times of retrenchment, these are labor or big government and its beneficiaries. ' The periods of fervor in American politics -the moments of creedal passion,

The Rule of the Clerics in the Islamic Republic of Iran

Abstract: Direct rule by Islamic clerics in Iran is an important new phenomenon in Middle Eastern politics. The legitimacy of clerical rule is based on an ideology developed from Shiite thought by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and his neofundamentalist followers. This ideology is embodied in the Iranian Constitution, which institutionalizes rule by Islamic clerics. Their sense of legitimacy has been reinforced by Khomeini's commitment to maintaining clerical rule, by his claim to leadership on the basis of a divine calling, and by a monopolization of the interpretation of the sacred law. The principal themes of clerical rule include grandiosity, an insistence on unity, ascription of hostile motives to the actions of other states, a preference for military solutions to political problems, and a belief in ultimate victory. Replication of the Iranian pattern of clerical rule elsewhere in the Middle East will be problematic without the emergence of a figure like Khomeini or the assistance of Iran.

The Politics of Constitutional Change in Industrial Nations: Redesigning the State

Abstract: During the last two decades serious attempts to alter basic constitutional structures have taken place in many industrial nations, even in those often thought to have highly stable political institutions. In some cases, such as Belgium and Spain, far-reaching constitutional changes have been put in place; in others advocates of reform have achieved only partial victories or have been entirely frustrated. In all cases, controversy over the constitution has been intense, involving basic conceptions of legitimacy, representation, sovereignty and the purposes of the state. Constitutional politics often reveals much about political life of modern societies that is obscured in day-to-day events. The results of constitutional changes can significantly affect the distribution of power, the ability to manage conflict and the outcomes of policy debates. This book explores the dynamics of constitutional politics through case studies of Spain, Belgium, Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States, West Germany and Eastern Europe, including Poland, prepared by leading students of these countries. Other chapters draw out the more general patterns of constitutional politics, highlighting the pressures which lead to change, and the formidable obstacles confronting them.

The Impasse of Social Democratic Politics

Abstract: The notion of gradual but inevitable progress toward socialism through the vehicle of a paternalist parliamentary state has always entailed an historical determinism far more myopic than could ever be properly ascribed to Marxism. The rude shock administered by the establishment of the new right's 'market populism' as the governing ideology of the 1980s appears to have clearly and definitively shattered the complacency associated with the phrase, so oft repeated over the past century, 'we are all socialists now'. At the same time it must also be recognised that the emergence of market populism amidst the current crisis of capitalism has simultaneously exposed in its wake the impasse of working class politics in the West. The long-standing assumption that a return to mass unemployment and an abandonment of bourgeois commitment to the Keynesian welfare state would lead to political instability and a crisis of capitalist legitimacy, an assumption as common among liberals as among many Marxists, has been cast into doubt. For the moment at least, it is the weakness of the political forces associated with the working class-whether trade unions, or social democratic parties, or revolutionary socialist parties-that has come to the fore and brought home an old lesson: there is nothing automatic about the development of socialist consciousness when the capitalist economy is not generating material benefits or job security for the working class.

Elections and Legitimacy in the Middle East

Abstract: Israel is an immigrant democracy, not unlike the United States; and its traditions and adverse circumstances have hastened assimilation and have softened the ideological differences so vocally expressed by its party system. In Turkey, democracy had to wait until a generation after it became a nation-state. Whereas the vast majority of voters supported moderate, centrist parties, the election system first encouraged majority tyranny and next gave exaggerated leverage to the extremist parties repudiated at the polls. These weaknesses of the political system—and periodic economic crises—gave rise to periodic military interventions but appear at last to have been overcome by the liberal and popular program of Turgut Ozal. Elsewhere in the Middle East, the interlude of Western colonialism and the futile search for pan-Arab unity have delayed the advent of democracy; and in Lebanon, armed denominational rivalries have destroyed the political system. More recently, boundaries and regimes have stabilized througho...

The Chinese Political Order after Mao: ‘Socialist Democracy’ and the Exercise of State Power

Abstract: The imperatives of modernization, legitimacy, and a permanent political order have been the major concerns of the Chinese Communist Party since 1976. A central part of the Party's response has been the campaign to promote ‘socialist democracy’. This article examines the formulation of that concept, as well as the prospects for its successful implementation. It suggests that the reforming zeal of many in the higher echelons of the Party's leadership may be more than matched by the bureaucratic conservatism of middle management.

Doomadgee : a study of power relations and social action in a north Australian Aboriginal settlement

Abstract: This thesis presents an ethnographic description and analysis of a broad range of social life at a north Australian Aboriginal settlement, within a theoretical framework that stresses power relations. Specific concepts including class, status, social closure, domination, authority and legitimacy are drawn predominantly from Weberian sociology to achieve idiographic explanation of social action. While primarily seeking to account for a large body of empirical data, a broader aim of the study has been to articulate substantive ethnographic research on Aborigines and race-relations, within the general social science theoretical concern with power relations.Part A of the thesis consists of the Introduction (Chapter 1) and a discussion of relevant theoretical concepts (Chapter 2). Part B concerns social life deriving predominantly from Aboriginal tradition. It deals with Aborigines' individual and collective affiliation to Aboriginal languages (Chapter 3) and "country" (Chapter 4) , and with their social relations on the basis of kinship (Chapter 5). These features of Aboriginal social life are presented as critical aspects of the social identity of people, and as the foci for competitive status relations; the extent to which Aboriginal tradition thereby generates stratification and inequality in settlement social life is considered. However, the further critical conclusion in Part E is that Aboriginal affiliation to language, country and kin does not generate corporate groups, and the study thus indicates the necessity to keep the concepts of "status" and "status group" analytically separate.Part C stresses the importance of the issue of legitimacy in the analysis of power relations. Chapters 6 to 9 are essentially concerned with understanding Aboriginal compliance within the pattern of White Australian domination. Chapter 6 presents extensive historical material, in examining the domination of Aboriginal society via economic power, the use of physical force by the state, and the development of authority relations. Chapter 7 uses the notion of social closure to develop the concept of separate Aboriginal and White domains, operating such that Aborigines maintain substantial autonomy. Chapter 8 considers the operation of entrenched authority relations in settlement administrative processes, while Chapter 9 focuses on Christianity as a legitimating ideology in the process of Aborigines accepting the authority of local White missionary staff. Throughout Part C, the thesis stresses the necessity to analytically recognise coercion in the social processes generating Aboriginal compliance, as well as the "voluntarism" which is strongly stressed within the classic Weberian perspective. In conclusion (Part D, Chapter 10), it is thus argued that a flexible interplay between the concepts of coercion and voluntarism has been necessary in the study of compliance, and that these two notions should be understood as analytically separable components of the concept of legitimacy. It is further argued more generally in the conclusion, that a theoretical framework emphasising power relations has enabled the most adequate holistic understanding and explanation of the social life with which the study is concerned.

Capital Relations and The Way of the World

Abstract: William Congreve is best remembered for his trenchant social satire. As a near contemporary of both Dryden and Swift, he is, not surprisingly, often overlooked as a political writer. Yet Congreve was a political creature, and political concerns find their way, openly or subtly, into his works. In 1695, William III made Congreve Commissioner of Hackney Coaches in the hope that he would become a propagandist for the new regime. Though the playwright did not fulfill the immediate expectations of his benefactor, his tragedy The Mourning Bride, produced in 1697, was a thinly veiled political allegory upholding the legitimacy of the succession. According to Maximillian Novak, the play "was eventually to create a Whig myth of rebellion against a tyrant as an antidote to the Tory myth which Dryden spent some thirty years erecting. "'