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Showing papers on "Legitimacy published in 1989"


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Hasenfeld et al. as discussed by the authors developed and tested a causal model of the determinants of public attitudes toward welfare state programs using data from the 1983 Detroit Area Study and found that the social groups supporting the welfare state are the economically and socially vulnerable who identify with social democratic values.
Abstract: 7This paper develops and tests a causal model of the determinants of public attitudes toward welfare state programs. It proposes that support of welfare state programs is a function of self-interest and the resultant identification with dominant social ideologies-zwrk ethic and social equality. Identification with these ideologies, in turn, affects endorsement of social rights and, hence, support of welfare state programs. Using data from the 1983 Detroit Area Study, the model is generally confirmed. The data also show, as expected, some important differences in the effects of the social ideologies on support of contributory vs. means-tested programs. The findings suggest that the social groups supporting the welfare state are the economically and socially vulnerable who identify with social democratic values. It has become a truism that the welfare state is in an era of crisis. In particular, the welfare state is said to suffer from a legitimacy crisis as evidenced by the recent decline in its growth rate and the fiscal crisis of the state (O'Connor 1973), the rise to power of conservative political elites with an anti-welfare ideology, and the declining credibility of the intellectual underpinning of the welfare state (Mishra 1984). Offe (1984, p. 157) asserts that both the Left and the Right agree that the present welfare state is no longer "the promising and permanently valid answer to the problems of the socio-political order of advanced capitalist economics." The intellectual attack on the welfare state is not necessarily reflected in mass attitudes, and studies of public opinion toward the welfare state portray a somewhat different picture. Trend data from polls over the last half century indicate a fairly strong and consistent support of the basic *Direct correspondence to Yeheskel Hasenfeld, School of Social Welfare, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90024. ? 1989 The University of North Carolina Press

390 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In "In Pursuit of Lakshmi", this article, scholars Lloyd I. Rudolph and Susanne Hoeber Rudolph focus on this modern-day pursuit by offering a comprehensive analysis of India's political economy.
Abstract: The pursuit of Lakshmi, the fickle goddess of prosperity and good fortune, is a metaphor for the aspirations of the state and people of independent India. In the latest of their distinguished contributions to South Asian studies, scholars Lloyd I. Rudolph and Susanne Hoeber Rudolph focus on this modern-day pursuit by offering a comprehensive analysis of India's political economy. India occupies a paradoxical plane among nation states: it is both developed and underdeveloped, rich and poor, strong and weak. These contrasts locate India in the international order. The Rudolphs' theory of demand and command polities provides a general framework for explaining the special circumstances of the Indian experience. Contrary to what one might expect in a country with great disparities of wealth, no national party, right or left, pursues the politics of class. Instead, the Rudolphs argue, private capital and organized labor in India face a "third actor"-the state. Because of the dominance of the state makes class politics marginal, the state is itself an element in the creation of the centrist-oriented social pluralism that has characterized Indian politics since independence. In analyzing the relationship between India's politics and its economy, the Rudolphs maintain that India's economic performance has been only marginally affected by the type of regime in power-authoritarian or democratic. More important, they show that rising levels of social mobilization and personalistic rule have contributed to declining state capacity and autonomy. At the same time, social mobilization has led to a more equitable distribution of economic benefits and political power, which has enhanced the state's legitimacy among its citizens. The scope and explanatory power of "In Pursuit of Lakshmi" will make it essential for all those interested in political economy, comparative politics, Asian studies and India.

327 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors examined the linkages among institutional legitimacy, perceptions of procedural justice, and voluntary compliance with unpopular institutional decisions within the context of political intolerance and repression, and concluded that to the extent that an institution employs fair decision-making procedures, it is viewed as legitimate and citizens are more likely to comply with its decisions, even when they are unpopular.
Abstract: This research examines the linkages among institutional legitimacy, perceptions of procedural justice, and voluntary compliance with unpopular institutional decisions within the context of political intolerance and repression. Several questions are addressed, including: To what degree do judicial decisions contribute to the acceptance of unpopular political decisions? Do court decisions have a greater power to legitimize than the decisions of other political institutions? Are courts perceived as more procedurally fair than other political institutions? Do perceptions of procedural fairness-be it in a court or legislative institution-contribute to the efficacy of institutional decisions? The basic hypothesis of this research is that to the extent that an institution employs fair decisionmaking procedures, it is viewed as legitimate and citizens are more likely to comply with its decisions, even when they are unpopular. Based on an analysis of national survey data, I conclude that, although perceptions of institutional procedure have little impact on compliance, institutional legitimacy does seem to have some effect. The United States Supreme Court in particular seems to have some ability to elicit acceptance of public policies that are unpopular with the mass public. This effect is greatest among opinion leaders. I conclude with some observations about how these findings fit with the growing literature on procedural justice and with some thoughts about the implications of the findings for the protection of democratic liberty.

253 citations


Book
01 Dec 1989
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore how the state in Hong Kong emerged, the measures it uses to attain its goals, and how autonomous it has been from Britain and China and from popular political demands.
Abstract: The Sino-British agreement and the resumption of Chinese sovereignty over Hong Kong in 1997 have posed fundamental questions about the future of that state and the political and individual liberties which Hong Kong citizens will or will not enjoy under the new order. A fundamental question is whether a capitalist economy (guaranteed by the agreement) can exist in Hong Kong after 1997 without the supervisory role of the capitalist state and the implied relationship with the population. To explore this question it is necessary to know how the state in Hong Kong emerged, the measures it uses to attain its goals, and how autonomous it has been from Britain and China and from popular political demands. The author traces the history of the unreformed colony from when it was founded in 1841 till 1967, and then examines the 1967 riots, and the social and governmental reforms and the "relative autonomous" regime that followed. A chapter on the Sino-British negotiations and agreement looks at the resulting anxiety and turbulence in Hong Kong due to conflicting interests, and at the corporate state, aimed at reconciling those interests, which has been created since. In conclusion, the views of future developments held by the Chinese and British governments and leaders in Hong Kong are considered. Ian Scott has co-edited two books on the Hong Kong Civil Service.

218 citations



Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, it is suggested that the knowledge foundations of the accounting profession are problematic and that members must counteract threats to its legitimacy stemming from its underlying knowledge foundations, and that the frequently repeated search for a conceptual framework represents a means of counteracting this threat.
Abstract: According to most authors, a body of (formal) knowledge is the crucial trait of professions. It is the presumed existence of this knowledge which legitimises claims to expertise, professional powers, autonomy and control over work. The body of knowledge around which the financial accounting professionalisation project has taken place is described and it is shown that professionalisation took place around a variety of personal qualities, such as honesty, independence and respectability – skills not specific to “accountants”, such as penmanship, arithmetic, work and knowledge, which at the time were contestable as being the domain of the legal profession. It is suggested that (not unlike other professions), the knowledge foundations of the accounting profession are problematic and so in order to reproduce and advance the accounting profession, members must counteract threats to its legitimacy stemming from its underlying knowledge foundations. It is also suggested that the frequently repeated search for a conceptual framework represents a means of counteracting this threat to the social legitimacy of the accounting profession, and that conceptual framework projects are used as a political resource in the profession‐alisation struggle during times of possible intervention by the state and at times of competition from other (including accounting) groups.

207 citations


Book
01 Jan 1989
TL;DR: Mukerji as mentioned in this paper argues that scientists act less as purveyors of knowledge to the government than as an elite and highly skilled talent pool retained to give legitimacy to U.S. policies and programs: scientists allow their authority to be projected onto government officials who use scientific ideas for political purposes.
Abstract: When the National Science Foundation funds research about the earth's crust and the Department of Energy supports studies on the disposal of nuclear wastes, what do they expect for their money? Most scientists believe that in such cases the government wants information for immediate use or directions for seeking future benefits from nature. Challenging this oversimplified view, Chandra Mukerji depicts a more complex interdependence between science and the state. She uses vivid examples from the heavily funded field of oceanography, particularly from recent work on seafloor hot springs and on ocean disposal of nuclear wastes, to raise questions about science as it is practiced and financed today. She finds that scientists act less as purveyors of knowledge to the government than as an elite and highly skilled talent pool retained to give legitimacy to U.S. policies and programs: scientists allow their authority to be projected onto government officials who use scientific ideas for political purposes. Writing in a crisp and jargon-free style, Mukerji reveals the peculiar mix of autonomy and dependency defined for researchers after World War II--a mix that has changed since then but that continues to shape the practical conduct of science. Scientists use their control over the scientific content of research to convince themselves of their autonomy and to achieve some power in their dealings with funding agencies, but they remain fundamentally dependent on the state. Mukerji argues that they constitute a kind of reserve force, like the Army or Navy reserves, paid by the government to do research only because science is politically essential to the workings of the modern state. This book isessential reading not only for sociologists and students of science and society, and for oceanographers, but also for every scientist whose work depends directly or indirectly on government support.

184 citations


Book
03 Aug 1989
TL;DR: In this article, the evolving role and responsibility of judges, the lawmaking power of the judges and its limits who watches the watchmen, and the expansion and legitimacy of judicial review.
Abstract: Part 1 The evolving role and responsibility of judges: the law-making power of the judges and its limits who watches the watchmen? Part 2 The expansion and legitimacy of judicial review: judicial review in comparative perspective the "mighty problem" of judicial review repudiating Montesquieu? - the expansion and legitimacy of "constitutional justice" Part 3 Social justice and the public interest - new challenges for the judiciary: access to judicial remedies in civil litigation - comparative constitutional, international and social trends vindicating the public interest through the courts Part 4 Promoting legal integration through the courts: the judicial branch in the Federal and Transnational Union - its impact on integration is the European Court of Justice "running wild?"

168 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, it is argued that specific disciplinary practices within organization studies cannot provide general theory of the organization, since they cannot provide for their own interpretation independently of those agencies whose interpretations instantiate, signify or imply them.
Abstract: Typically, organization theorists have defined 'power' against 'authority' around the axis of 'legitimacy'. Power, thus regarded, is a 'capacity' grounded outside the authoritative structure of the organization. Organizations have typically been regarded as coherent and homogenous entities in which these capacities occur. Against these views, organizations are defined here as comprising locales, cross-cut by arenas, in which agencies, powers, networks and interests are constituted. Power is not a thing but a process constituted within struggles. Power is always embedded within rules: these cannot provide for their own interpretation independently of those agencies whose interpretations instantiate, signify or imply them. Specific disciplinary practices within organization studies prescribe these interpretations, but it is argued, they can provide no general theory of the organization.

167 citations


Book
01 Dec 1989
TL;DR: The Contemporary Polarization of Democratic Theory: The Case for a Third Way as discussed by the authors is a good starting point for a discussion of the contemporary polarization of political theory in the modern state.
Abstract: Preface. Introduction. 1. Central Perspectives on the Modern State. 2. Class, Power and the State. 3. Legitimation Problems and Crisis Tendencies. 4. Power and Legitimacy. 5. Liberalism, Marxism and the Future Direction of Public Policy. 6. The Contemporary Polarization of Democratic Theory: The Case for a Third Way. 7. Citizenship and Autonomy. 8. Sovereignty, National Politics and the Global System. 9. A Discipline of Politics? Index.

106 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
01 Dec 1989-Polity
TL;DR: Using the framework of resource exchange analysis, the authors explores the concept of power, following Weber's formulations, and seeks to clarify its relation to authority and legitimacy, and illuminates not only the notion of power but also many problems of political analysis and discourse.
Abstract: Power is a puzzling notion. It seems so useful as a way to talk about politics in ordinary discourse, but when used to analyze politics systematically it quickly becomes entangled in a snarl of concepts, its precise nature and meaning growing less clear in the underbrush of related terms. This article seeks to clear away some of this tangle. Using the framework of resource-exchange analysis, the author explores the concept of power, following Weber's formulations, and seeks to clarify its relation to authority and legitimacy. His approach illuminates not only the notion of power but also many problems of political analysis and discourse.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In the Second Treatise, John Locke presents two stories about the development of political society: (1) the dramatic story of the state of nature and social contract; and (2) a more gradualist account of the evolution of political societies "by an insensible change" out of the family group as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: In the Second Treatise, John Locke presents two stories about the development of political society: (1) the dramatic story of the state of nature and social contract; and (2) a more gradualist account of the evolution of political society “by an insensible change” out of the family group The relation between these two accounts is analyzed in order to deal with familiar objections about the historical truth and internal consistency of contract theory It is argued that Locke regarded story (2) as the historically accurate one, but that he believed historical events needed moral interpretation Story (1) represents a moral framework or template to be used as a basis for understanding the implications — for political obligation and political legitimacy — of story (2) Even if the whole course of the evolution of political institutions out of prepolitical society cannot be seen as a single intentional or consensual process, still individual steps in that process can be analyzed and evaluated in contractualist terms The task of political judgment is to infer the rights and obligations of politics from this representation of political development as an overlapping series of consensual events

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors locate and understand the place of Third World states in the international system both in terms of their collective impact on the system as the "intruder" element into the Eurocentric system of states and in their role as individual new sovereign states trying to adjust to an international order that can only be defined as an anarchy.
Abstract: This article attempts to locate and understand the place of Third World states in the international system both in terms of their collective impact on the system as the "intruder" element into the Eurocentric system of states and in terms of their role as individual new sovereign states trying to adjust to an international order that can only be defined as an "anarchical society." Often the dual pressures generated by these two roles can make conflicting demands on these states' decision-making centers, which themselves are under severe internal strain due to the lack of "unconditional legitimacy" for both Third World state-structures and the regimes that preside over them. It is argued that an expanded definition of the concept of "security" is essential for the construction of any paradigm that would have sufficient power to explain why Third World states behave as they do within the international system. It is also argued that the present difficulties they face in adjusting to the system of sovereign states is analogous to the growing pains of adolescence rather than to the schizophrenia of the demented.

Book
01 Jan 1989
TL;DR: The Satyagrahi and the returning exile of the Mahatma in South Africa as mentioned in this paper is a seminal event in the history of identity civil disobedience in South African politics and the quest for legitimacy and unity.
Abstract: Part 1 The forging of a public man: an Indian nonentity South African experience I - the self-taught political apprentice South African experience II - "The Satyagrahi" India and the returning exile. Part 2 Indian identity: Mahatma and nation, 1920-34 non-co-operation - the road to Swaraj? fruits of reflection - roots of identity civil disobedience - the quest for legitimacy and unity 1928-34. Part 3 The crises of old age: "Where there is no vision, the people perish" non-violence on trial prisoner of hope.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The South Korean case supports the contention that popular demands for political participation and the willingness of elites to recognize them are the likely consequences of modernization as discussed by the authors, and the continuing transformation of the political system suggests that neither the corporatist nor the bureaucratic authoritarian models are applicable to Korea.
Abstract: The South Korean case supports the contention that popular demands for political participation and the willingness of elites to recognize them are the likely consequences of modernization. The continuing transformation of the political system suggests that neither the corporatist nor the bureaucratic authoritarian models are applicable to Korea. Its non-democratic past is best seen as a response to specific factors, including Korea's position in the prevailing world system, the absence of countervailing elites as a result of war and rapid social transformation and the development of a strong and relatively independent state. The recent domestic and international impact of modernization has been to reverse the influence of these factors, though elements of the political culture and the contentious legacy of the past pose difficulties for the new democracy. Roh Tae-woo will need to be seen to be making a new beginning if the perennial legitimacy crisis of the Korean republic is to be overcome.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Two very different pictures of mass legal consciousness' have wide currency in contemporary legal scholarship as mentioned in this paper, one of public cynicism, of instrumentalism without conviction, of citizens both litigious and at the same time, alienated from the legal system.
Abstract: Two very different pictures of mass legal consciousness' have wide currency in contemporary legal scholarship. The first is one of public cynicism, of instrumentalism without conviction, of citizens both litigious and, at the same time, alienated from the legal system.2 This image of mass legal consciousness informs many accounts of the so-called "litigation explosion"3 and suggests that legal institutions are no longer accorded sufficient legitimacy and respect. It is deployed to identify and respond to the alleged erosion of public confidence in legal institutions.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the author addresses the same issue, but using different premises and a different conceptual frame, taking as his point of departure the two basic problems which rational collective will-formation refers to - conflict-resolution and goal attainment.
Abstract: . Contractarian theories are meant to settle the issue of when political authority meets the conditions of rational legitimacy. The author addresses the same issue, but using different premises and a different conceptual frame. He takes as his point of departure the two basic problems which rational collective will-formation refers to - conflict-resolution and goal attainment. He then introduces the codes of law and power, with which such will-formation can be institutionalized. The legitimation gap that then still remains open can be filled by a practical reason which is not limited simply to morality but also permeates the procedures of law application, policy-formation and legislation. These preliminary considerations remain within the limits of a thought-experiment.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors argue that political theorists frequently think in terms of gross concepts: they reduce what are actually relational claims to claims about one or another of the components of the relation, which not only obscures the phenomena they wish to analyze, but also generates debates that can never be resolved because the alternatives that are opposed to one another are vulnerable within their own terms.
Abstract: POLITICAL THEORISTS OFTEN fail to appreciate that any claim about how politics is to be organized must be a relational claim involving agents, actions, legitimacy, and ends. If they did, they would see that to defend the standard contending views in many of the controversies that occupy them is silly. In what follows I work through a number of debates about the nature of right, law, autonomy, utility, freedom, virtue, and justice, showing this to be true. I argue, further, that political theorists frequently think in terms of gross concepts: They reduce what are actually relational claims to claims about one or another of the components of the relation. This not only obscures the phenomena they wish to analyze, it also generates debates that can never be resolved because the alternatives that are opposed to one another are vulnerable within their own terms. Finally I offer a pair of explanations for why gross concepts persist in political theory, and suggest a way for avoiding their trap.

Book
01 Jan 1989
TL;DR: Aronoff as mentioned in this paper examines the relationship between the changing political system and political culture in Israel, with particular focus on the decade of the 1980s, and suggests that the Israeli political system is undergoing a crisis of political legitimacy, exemplified by the rise of extra-parliamentary movements.
Abstract: This finely etched, on-site work examines the relationships between the changing political system and political culture in Israel, with particular focus on the decade of the 1980s. Written by a scholar equally at home in the United States and in Israel, and intellectually equally at home in political science and anthropology, "Israeli Visions and Divisions "is a fundamental contribution to a literature long on passion and short on reason, which perhaps is an academic reflection of social life in this deeply troubled land. Aronoff starts from the belief that the basic conflicting and even contradictory interpretations over what should be the exact character of Israel as a Jewish state continues to be the source of the most serious division among Jews within contemporary Israel. As a consequence, consensus politics yields to coalition politics; and prospects for a future consensus are dim. Conflict among Jewish political and religious groups, and between Jews and Arabs, is aggravated by the uses of Zionist symbolism in a fragmented political culture. This is a serious critique made from a sympathetic quarter. Aronoff suggests that the Israeli political system is undergoing a crisis of political legitimacy, exemplified by the rise of extraparliamentary movements. The parliamentary system accentuates' these divisions by making every minor tradition and vision part of the legislative and executive processes. "Israeli Visions and Divisions "is not a pessimistic reading. The author is convinced that the way is open for a move away from particularism and tribalism, and toward a new universalism and humanism. The old policies have proven bankrupt, and th, e old ideologies have lost their salience. The book is rich in detail and profound in outlook. It will be greeted by those interested in new policies as well as by students of the Middle East who hope to piece together what has gone awry in the land of milk and honey.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In fact, this principle cannot extend to justify the prohibition of all conduct which disadvantages others, for such an extensive standard would subsume much of the personal freedom which the principle purports to protect.
Abstract: Contemporary liberal theory faces substantial difficulties in containing its doctrines of political legitimacy. Liberalism is committed by definition to making claims about the limits of governmental authority, and a theoretical investigation of these claims must provide good reasons for drawing the limits at one point rather than another.1 Such investigations are regularly impeded-even frustrated-by the indeterminacy of the concepts in terms of which they are conducted. The most familiar concept associated with liberal theories of legitimacy is that of 'harm'. Liberals invariably rely upon their 'harm principle' to delimit at least one kind of state action-the attaching of sanctions to behaviour. Plainly, this principle cannot extend to justify the prohibition of all conduct which disadvantages others, for such an extensive standard would subsume much of the personal freedom which the principle purports to protect. If it is to help us ascertain one of the boundaries of legitimacy, the understanding of 'harm' which is appealed to in the harm principle must have intelligible limits. The process of discerning these limits is laborious and eventually frustrating, because in fact we properly understand the concept of 'harm' in a way that is context-relative. While in one context the description 'harm' only extends to physical injuries, in another we might include intense irritations, demoralizations, emotional manipulations and so on.2 Responding to this conceptual elasticity, a liberal could attempt to provide a rigid definition of 'harm', but the process of definition eliminates some of the important reflective appeal and subtlety of the harm principle, and introduces the different and inappropriate context-relativity of some further set of defining terms. We cannot usefully transcend the fluidity of our understanding by stipulation.3 The other significant concept at the core of contemporary liberal theories of legitimacy is that of 'distributive justice'. Many liberals accept that a further reason for legislative activity, apart from the harm principle, is to effect some redistribution of advantage among citizens. Here the profound difficulties include that of

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Niklas Luhmann is a troublemaker: he writes a great deal, and on very many subjects, and he is still expanding his theory as mentioned in this paper, which is a super-mega-world view.
Abstract: Niklas Luhmann is a troublemaker: he writes a great deal, and on very many subjects, and he is still expanding his theory. As a jurist, he started with studies on law and administration, but soon he reached the level of general sociology and published a wealth of books and articles on power, love, religion, morality, education, art, the economy, and the like.1 With his supertheory he is now on his way to inheriting the philosophical tradition of the occident (cf. Habermas, 1985: 426-45). Luhmann has developed his own terminology, which sounds familiar, but in which the meaning of customary expressions such as "legitimacy," "ideology," "institution," and "meaning" is intentionally distorted. He also uses new concepts like "autopoiesis" and has created models for a fashionable semantic: "reduction of complexity," "legitimation by procedure"-now cliches for a social scientist. His compact-hermetic supertheory, his nicely constructed conceptual framework does not derive from a single source or principle only; rather, Luhmann has combined various theories and approaches in his super-mega-world view. Not only does he use cybernetics, formal systems theory (input-output models), sociological systems theory a la Parsons, Husserl's phenomenological epistemology, Gehlen's anthropology, and symbolic interactionism, but he has also recently borrowed from thermodynamics, biology, neurophysiology, theory of cells, and computer theory (cf. Luhmann, 1984: 27). Luhmann claims to have established a general systems theory, for which law and sociology of law are only a single field of application. A particular problem in analyzing Luhmann's theory, especially his sociological theory of law, results from a change of paradigm in his approach. Luhmann no longer conceptualizes systems primarily as input-output models, but gives greater weight to the internal operations of self-reproduction ("autopoiesis") of functionally specified systems. Luhmann developed this new approach on a general level (1984). However, the consequences for this new

Journal ArticleDOI

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Fiji's colonial government resisted the imperial requirement to respect Indian "customary law" especially in marriage as mentioned in this paper, and the difference in policy followed the spe- cial project of colonial Fiji: the civilizing of the indigenous Fijians.
Abstract: Fiji's colonial government resisted the imperial requirement to respect Indian "customary law," especially in marriage. Administrators readily codified versions of indigenous Fijian "custom" as law but refused to grant legitimacy or authority to customs of the Indians come to Fiji as "coolies" and plantation "labor units." In debate over Indian marriage law-child marriage, bride selling, polygamy, "purdah," licensing of pandits, and so on-they resisted recognizing as valid all forms of Indian custom. The difference in policy followed the spe- cial project of colonial Fiji: the civilizing of the indigenous Fijians. The Indians, brought to Fiji as a means to that end, were considered (unlike the indigenous Fijians) to be "free" of custom already, but to be animalistic by nature and inferior to Europeans by race-a perfect working class. The British thus feared Indian culture as an anomaly threatening their order and progress in Fiji. More than a decade ago, anthropologists and other scholars interested in the history of non-Western peoples were admonished to reexamine colonial relations and their implications. It was argued that anthropology and other disciplines, "by refusing to discuss the way in which bourgeois Europe has imposed its power and its own conception of the just political order on African and Islamic peoples," distorted the realities they wrote about and helped to reproduce colonialist discourse and European power (Asad 1973: 118; see also Said I978). This essay attempts to discuss the way in which the imperial British imposed their own conceptions of the just political order in Fiji. It is not intended as a replacement for study of how indigenous Fijians and Fiji Indians made their own history. Instead, like Kaplan (I989), I propose that insights into the workings of British imperial culture in the Fijian colonial project might be of value, not only for those interested in Fiji or in British ways of making history, but for any scholarship concerned with colonial social fields, and especially situa-

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, a multiple regression design covering 18 Western core societies over the postwar era is used to test whether legitimacy, operationalized as relative absence of mass political protest, has an effect on comparative overall economic performance once initial wealth, absolute and relative size of government and membership in trading blocs are controlled for.
Abstract: This paper suggests that comparative economic success is influenced by political choices which themselves are linked to the competitive world system. Governments produce social order (or protection) as a territorially bounded public utility, which is seen as a productive force. Citizens invest a social order with differing degrees of legitimacy which is thus, via motivation, an important competitive resource. A multiple regression design covering 18 Western core societies over the postwar era is used to test whether legitimacy, operationalized as relative absence of mass political protest, has an effect on comparative overall economic performance once initial wealth, absolute and relative size of government and membership in trading blocs are controlled for. We find robust empirical evidence for a positive impact of legitimacy on growth in the postwar era. The study thus suggests additional support for the theory of the ‘world market for protection', developed elsewhere to explain long-term economic success and societal convergence at the core of the world system

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors argued that historical narrative is a universal form representing time and experience that Western historians have made particularly persuasive and authoritative, and the modern historian, according to this view, has brought narrative to its natural culmination by constructing such historical plots as the rise of the Nation-State or the development of Modes of Production.
Abstract: Writing about the development of historical writing in the West, Hayden White argues that “narrative in general, from the folktale to the novel, from the annals to the fully realized ‘history’, has to do with the topics of law, legality, legitimacy, or, more generally, authority.” But precisely how does narrative treat the different forms of social authority? One answer is that historical narrative is a universal form representing time and experience that Western historians have made particularly persuasive and authoritative. The modern historian, according to this view, has brought narrative to its natural culmination by constructing such historical plots as the “Rise of the Nation-State” or the “Development of Modes of Production.” This perspective is put forward primarily by students of European historiography.

01 Dec 1989
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine the characteristics which distinguish the Republic from the Empire in Brazil and explore the process of breaking with tradition and constructing a new symbolic universe capable of lending the emergent republican nation legitimacy.
Abstract: This article examines the characteristics which distinguish the Republic from the Empire in Brazil. It explores the process of breaking with tradition and constructing a new symbolic universe capable of lending the emergent republican nation legitimacy. Political revolutions must deal at one and the same time with the organization of a new social and political life and with the construction of an imagery capable of reestablishing an equilibrium lost over time. When a new moment begun, it thus becomes necessary to evoke a remote time, a time where the roots - the true meaning of man and society - are to be found. This ubiqui tousness of revolutions, which are characterized by having one foot in the future and another in the past, has taken form in different ways. Dates, heroes, monuments, music, songs, and folklore come together in shaping a national memory, and if the latter has consistency, it proves an important reinforcement of social cohesion. When the Brazilian Republic was being built, monarchists and republicans struggled for the upper hand in devising a project for Brazil. The hypothesis sustained by the author is that the new symbolic universe was unable to lend the republican nation legitimacy. On the other hand, the monarchists, although not strong enough to restore the monarchy, were strong enough to guarantee the supremacy of their interpretation of Brazil.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The French Revolution was seen as a world historical event as much by its opponents as mentioned in this paper, and it has been viewed in the same way ever since. But, looking back over a distance of two hundred years, it is worth asking to what extent this reputation is deserved?
Abstract: Contemporaries who witnessed the fall of the Bastille did not doubt that an event of shocking significance had occurred. On 19 July 1789 the Ambassador of Saxony reported that so important and extraordinary a revolution 'cannot fail to bring about a considerable change in the political system of France'. The Portuguese Ambassador wrote that if he had not witnessed it himself 'he would not dare to describe it, for fear the truth should be considered a fable ... A king of France in an army coach, surrounded by the bayonets and muskets of a large crowd, finally forced to display on his head the cockade of liberty.M If it was not immediately clear that this attack on the legitimacy of the ancien r?gime would also involve an attack on the diplomatic practices and conventions of the European states-system, it quickly became so. In May 1790, when the National Assembly first turned its attention to foreign policy, many speakers attacked the prevailing system of power politics, with its emphasis on secrecy, alliances and clandestine preparations for war. Even the moderate Mirabeau, who urged caution in breaking with the old policy prematurely, looked forward to a time 'when we shall have only friends and no allies, when there will be universal freedom of trade and when Europe will form one great family'.2 Both language and sentiments echoed those of the founding fathers of the American Republic, who had similarly envisaged a 'new diplomacy' after 1776. In the French case the execution of Louis XVI translated the Utopian rationalism of the revol utionaries into a contest for the survival of the Revolution itself. The act of regicide was perceived as a challenge to the principle of legitimacy throughout Europe and signalled the beginning of the first major ideological conflict in international society since the end of the wars of religion. The Revolution was seen as a world historical event as much by its opponents? Burke denounced the Directory for having violated 'the public law of Europe'3?as by its supporters. It has been viewed in the same way ever since. Yet, looking back over a distance of two hundred years, it is worth asking to what extent this reputation is deserved? Other major upheavals, it may be argued, have obscured, and even dwarfed, the influence of 1789. Two world wars and the Russian and Chinese revol utions left more dead and more recent, if not necessarily deeper, scars on inter national political structures. The development of nuclear weapons and technology transformed the role of war even more fundamentally than Napoleon's introduction of the lev?e en masse. The withdrawal of European imperial power from Africa and Asia, and the rapid development of a complex world economy, enlarged the member ship of international society and extended its political agenda in ways which go far beyond the aspirations of the French Revolution. I shall argue that such scepticism is misplaced, and that, in important respects, the Revolution set in train developments which were to transform international society into the form that we now take for granted. Yet, it must be admitted that viewed against the backdrop of the twentieth



Book
01 Jan 1989
TL;DR: In this paper, the author describes the intellectual instincts behind the American reliance on the power of judicial review and addresses the basic constitutional issues of free speech, federalism and equal protection.
Abstract: In this critique of the legitimacy and methodology of legal interpretation, the author describes the intellectual instincts behind the American reliance on the power of judicial review. He addresses the basic constitutional issues of free speech, federalism and equal protection.