Showing papers on "Legitimacy published in 1995"

Managing Legitimacy: Strategic and Institutional Approaches

Abstract: This article synthesizes the large but diverse literature on organizational legitimacy, highlighting similarities and disparities among the leading strategic and institutional approaches. The analysis identifies three primary forms of legitimacy: pragmatic, based on audience self-interest; moral, based on normative approval: and cognitive, based on comprehensibility and taken-for-grantedness. The article then examines strategies for gaining, maintaining, and repairing legitimacy of each type, suggesting both the promises and the pitfalls of such instrumental manipulations.

Territorialization and state power in Thailand

Abstract: Weber and many other theorists have defined the state as a political organization that claims and upholds a monopoly on the legitimate use of physical force in a given territory.1 Writers who draw on this Weberian approach have devoted considerable theoretical attention to political organization, legitimacy, and physical coercion in the making of modern states. Until recently, however, the meaning of territory as a key practical aspect of state control has been relatively neglected by many theorists of the sources of state power. Territorial sovereignty defines people's political identities as citizens and forms the basis on which states claim authority over people and the resources within those boundaries.2 More important for our purposes here, modern states have increasingly turned to territorial strategies to control what people can do inside national boundaries. In this article, we aim to outline the emergence of territoriality in state power in Thailand, formerly called Siam. In particular, we examine the use of what we call internal territorialization in establishing control over natural resources and the people who use them.

Globalization and the changing logic of collective action

Abstract: Globalization transforms collective action in domestic and international politics. As the scale of markets widens and as economic organization becomes more complex, the institutional scale of political structures can become insufficient for the provision of an appropriate range of public goods. A process of this sort occurred prior to the emergence of the modern nation-state, which itself constituted a paradigmatic response to this predicament. Today, however, a complex process of globalization of goods and assets is undermining the effectiveness of state-based collective action. Overlapping “playing fields” are developing, made up of increasingly heterogeneous—transnational, local, and intermediate—arenas. The residual state retains great cultural force, and innovative projects for reinventing government are being tried. Nevertheless, the state's effectiveness as a civil association has eroded significantly, and this may lead to a crisis of legitimacy.

Understanding policy fiascoes

Abstract: A crisis of governance is widespread in western societies Public administration is caught in a web of personal and organizational inter-dependencies that require continuous awareness and readjustment on the part of its practitioners Understanding Policy Fiascoes applies policy analysis to come to terms with policy fiascoes, with a full appreciation of its limits Despite the fact that policy failures may seem universal, they are in fact better understood as social, political and academic constructions Bovens and 'tHart trace how and why certain episodes of public policymaking become labeled as "fiascoes" They highlight the analytical and political biases that shape our judgments of policy outcomes and the performance of policymakers and institutions When put in their proper historical, institutional, and policymaking perspective, many policy fiascoes could easily have turned out quite differently The authors show that the fact that these policy episodes unfolded as they did does not mean that they were inevitable Careful analysis indicates that a whole series of variables, if not always manageable, can, through careful configurations of decisions, alter the course and outcomes of policies and programs, as well as the post-hoc judgments made about them In examining public policymaking, certain questions arise: If public policymaking has failed so miserably, what does this tell us about the state of policy analysis? While policymakers are facing a crisis of legitimacy, policy analysis have been forced to reconsider the validity o their knowledge claims and the extent of their impact on the practice of policymaking Understanding Policy Fiascoes will provide social scientists, policymakers, and political scientists with compelling perspectives on old problems and a path-breaking way to handle new problems

On legitimacy, legitimation, and organizations: a critical review and integrative theoretical model.

Abstract: This paper reviews the use of the legitimacy concept and presents a model integrating resource-exchange and communication-based perspectives. The review critiques tautologies and teleologies derivi...

The Legitimacy of the Court of Justice in the European Union: Models of Institutional Support

Abstract: Using a survey of mass publics, we investigate the political legitimacy of the Court of Justice of the European Communities. To what degree does the Court have the visibility and diffuse support necessary for legitimacy? What accounts for variability in support for the Court? Are theories developed largely in the American context generalizable in Western Europe to a transnational legal institution? Do the sources of the Court's legitimacy vary across nations, and how? Our analysis indicates that relatively obscure institutions such as the Court of Justice are unlikely to build support through satisfying their constituencies' demands. Without information about the Court of Justice, ordinary citizens form their views based on its connection with the European Union and its association with broad political and legal values. As the Court moves into the limelight of European law and politics, the decisions the judges make may increasingly shape citizens' perceptions of its legitimacy.

Gender, Genetics, and Generation: Reformulating Biology in Lesbian Kinship

Abstract: The complicated historical relationship between ideas about homosexuality and concepts of "the family" in American culture makes the idea of gay and lesbian families-"chosen" or "created"-a provocative one in the study of American kinship. Insofar as lesbians and gay men have been ideologically excluded from the realm of kinship in American culture (Weston 1991:4-6), it is perhaps not surprising that claims to the legitimacy of gay and lesbian family configurations are often articulated and contested in terms of their perceived difference from (or similarity to) normative ideologies of "the American family." In her pivotal work, Families We Choose (1991), Kath Weston argues for the distinctiveness of a certain configuration of gay and lesbian kinship in which biological ties are decentered and choice, or love, becomes the defining feature of kin relationships. For Weston, gay and lesbian chosen families are neither derivative of, nor substititutes for, "straight," biological families; rather, they are distinctive in their own right (1991:210). Ellen Lewin takes a markedly different approach to the value of distinctiveness in her recent book, Lesbian Mothers (1993). By her own account exceeding the goal of her earlier work on maternal custody strategies-showing that lesbian mothers are "just as good" as heterosexual mothers-Lewin finds that "motherhood" in American culture constitutes a defining feature of womanhood that indeed supersedes the "difference" of lesbian identity (1993:3). In this reading, there is nothing particularly unique about the ways in which lesbian mothers negotiate relatedness and relationships. Though they are not explicitly foregrounded in such terms, I would argue that these two pivotal ethnographies together suggest that "biology," broadly conceived, is a crucial axis around which claims to the "distinctiveness" of gay and lesbian kinship revolve. Thus the relative centrality of biology in gay and lesbian families might be seen to signal a corollary assimilation into, or depar-

The Legitimacy of Transnational Legal Institutions: Compliance, Support, and the European Court of Justice

Abstract: Theory: We use competing propositions from the literature on institutional legitimacy and compliance to trace the sources of acceptance of, or the propensity to comply with, judicial decisions. Hypotheses: Generally, institutions with a store of legitimacy are more successful at evoking acquiescence to their decisions. We expect willingness to accept an unpopular decision to be most prevalent among those who are strongly committed to the institution itself, who perceive the Court as using fair procedures to make its decisions, who are strongly attached to the rule of law, and who are neutral about the issue on which the Court has made a decision. Methods: Regression analysis of items from a survey of the mass publics in the twelve member-states of the European Union in fall 1992. Results: The European Court of Justice does not have an extensive store of good will among ordinary citizens of the European Union. Few people are willing to accept a Court of Justice decision they find objectionable. There is, however, a moderately strong relationship between legitimacy-i.e., diffuse support-and acceptance. Perceptions of procedural justice play little role in the process, although basic legal values (e.g., attitudes toward the rule of law) contribute to acceptance within some countries. In general, our research demonstrates that legitimacy is important for acceptance and probably for compliance; and that the European Court of Justice must tend to what may be an emerging shortfall of legitimacy for the high bench of the European Union.

Changes in the code of ethics of the U.S. accounting profession, 1917 and 1988: The continual quest for legitimation

Abstract: While the accounting profession in the U.S. has claimed to be a moral or ethical body throughout the twentieth century, its moral schema and code of ethics have in fact undergone a number of changes. This paper argues that the codes of ethics (or professional conduct), and the discourses surrounding them, appeal to meta narratives of legitimation and that through this appeal the profession seeks to legitimize itself within the social realm. The paper explores two distinct periods: the turn of the century, during which time the first code was formulated, and the 1980s when the current code was constructed. We seek to demonstrate that the changes in the code and discourses are translations of both the political challenges to the legitimacy of accountants and a wider transformation in the culture of American society.

Rationalizing Culture: IRCAM, Boulez, and the Institutionalization of the Musical Avant-Garde

Abstract: Anthropologist Georgina Born presents one of the first ethnographies of a powerful western cultural organization, the renowned Institut de Recherche et de Coordination Acoustique/Musique (IRCAM) in Paris. As a year-long participant-observer, Born studied the social and cultural economy of an institution for research and production of avant-garde and computer music. She gives a unique portrait of IRCAM's composers, computer scientists, technicians, and secretaries, interrogating the effects of the cultural philosophy of the controversial avant-garde composer, Pierre Boulez, who directed the institute until 1992. Born depicts a major artistic institution trying to maintain its status and legitimacy in an era increasingly dominated by market forces, and in a volatile political and cultural climate. She illuminates the erosion of the legitimacy of art and science in the face of growing commercial and political pressures. By tracing how IRCAM has tried to accomodate these pressures while preserving its autonomy, Born reveals the contradictory effects of institutionalizing an avant-garde. Contrary to those who see postmodernism representing an accord between high and popular culture, Born stresses the continuities between modernism and postmodernism and how postmodernism itself embodies an implicit antagonism toward popular culture.

Hazardous Welfare-State Dynamics

Abstract: The achievements and costs of the modern welfare state are both usually analyzed in static terms. Some consequences of welfare-state arrangements, however, could rather be characterized as dynamic, in the sense of reflecting the interacting adjustments over time of basic behavior patterns of households, firms, interest-group organizations, politicians and public-sector administrators. Many of these dynamic adjustments are no doubt regarded by most observers as positive, or virtuous. For instance, it is easy to visualize how welfarestate policies, under favorable circumstances, may generate virtuous circles of reduced poverty, better neighborhoods, less street crime, improved health among lowincome groups, the accumulation of widely distributed human capital, increased labor productivity, and higher labor-force participation rates for women and various ethnic minorities; and all this contributes to expand the tax base, which facilitates the financing of the welfare-state programs in the first place. We may also speculate that welfare-state policies contribute to improved social coherence, and perhaps even to greater tolerance in the population for the continual reallocation of resources that characterizes a dynamic market economy, and that this reinforces the legitimacy and hence the support of the welfare state among those who do not perceive much direct benefit to themselves. Other dynamic adjustments are more problematic, or "hazardous." Due to limited space, this paper is confined to such adjustments. This does not mean that I regard positive, or virtuous, adjustments as less important than hazardous ones; indeed, it is largely because of various positive long-term consequences of welfare-state arrangements that I have often described the modern welfare state as "a triumph of western civilization." But if we do not watch out for hazardous dynamics, there is a risk that the welfare state will destroy its own economic foundations. That risk is today a reality in several countries. The following discussion is confined to four types of hazardous dynamic adjustments to welfare-state policies: (i) delayed adjustments by private agents to the disincentive effects of welfare-state policies; (ii) problematic consequences for short-term macroeconomic stability; (iii) induced changes over time in the behavior patterns of politicians and public-sector administrators; and (iv) the gradual replacement of market risks by political risk. As these dynamic adjustments strongly interact, it seems useful to discuss them together.

Democracy, Dialogue, and Environmental Disputes: The Contested Languages of Social Regulation

Abstract: This text addresses the conundrum of environmental regulation by tracing its source to the competing characterizations of regulatory legitimacy that have accompanied the growth of the American state.

The Banjul Charter and the African Cultural Fingerprint: An Evaluation of the Language of Duties

Abstract: This article questions the universality of the human rights corpus and argues that a human rights doctrine that is legitimate across cultures and traditions is not possible without the participation of the wider globe Its purpose is to imagine and reconfigure a rights regime that could achieve legitimacy in Africa It argues that African cultures and conceptions of man have a lot to contribute to the exercise of the reconstruction of the human rights corpus The piece focuses attention on particular African ideas and conceptions of society, morality, and human ethos that would enrich the human rights regime and make it more legitimate in Africa

Thread of Blood: Colonialism, Revolution, and Gender on Mexico's Northern Frontier

Abstract: This book is about the construction and tranformation of peasant military colonists on Mexico's northern frontier from the late 18th through the early 20th century. Though the majority of the data comes from the pueblo of Namiquipa in the state of Chihuahua, the argument has broader implications for the study of northern Mexico, frontier societies, and our understanding of the northern armies in the 1910 Revolution. The study is rare for its integration of several levels, placing an analysis of gender and ethnicity within a specific historical period. The author demonstrates that a distinct kind of frontier serrano society was generated in Namiquipa between the mid-18th and mid-19th centuries. In exchange for keeping the Apaches at bay, colonists were provided with arms and land grants. At the same time, they developed a gendered sense of ethnic identity that equated honor with land, autonomy, and a kind of masculinity that distinguished the "civilized" colonist from the "barbarous" Indian. While this identity was itself ordered hierarchically between men and women, and between "Hispanic" and "Indian," it also provided serranos with a sense of pride and dignity that was not directly associated with wealth. After the defeat of the Apaches, and with increased state control during the last decades of the Porfiriato, the serranos on the frontier were transformed from bulwarks of order to victims of progress. The expansion of capitalism and the manipulation of local political office by men no longer accountable to communal norms eroded the legitimacy of both powerholders and the central state. In response, serranos constructed an ideology of history based on past notions of masculine honor and autonomy. This ideology motivated their confrontations with the Mexican state during the 1890s and also served as the force behind their mobilization in the 1910 revolution.

Why Redraw the Map of Africa: A Moral and Legal Inquiry

Abstract: This article questions the legitimacy of the African state and the imperial cartography on which it is based. It argues that African states are conceptually faulty because they are the crude and thoughtless handiworks of European colonial powers. It is the artificiality of the African state that has been responsible for its failure to cohere into a nation that is viable. The piece argues for geographic and normative re-articulation of the African state - by smashing the current states - to endow them with moral, political, and legal legitimacy. It concludes that democratic entities are unlikely to develop where pre-colonial nations and peoples find no rationale in the imposed state.

Constitutional reform in the European community: Are there alternatives to the Majoritarian avenue?

Abstract: Traditionally, the weakness of the European Parliament and of European political parties is presented as a central cause of the European Community's legitimacy crisis. This article suggests an alternative reading of the situation. Not only is the legitimacy crisis much more complex than is generally believed, but the strengthening of the Parliament, and the development of party politics that would ensue might ultimately threaten the stability of the Community. The experience of parliamentary federations suggests that the majoritarian features of the parliamentary system may be a source of tension. No matter how necessary the democratisation of the EC's institutional setting may be, reforms must not be detrimental to the quality of centre‐periphery relations.

Social Darwinism, Scientific Racism, and the Metaphysics of Race.

Abstract: Tracing the philosophical underpinnings of scientific racism from the early work of hereditarians Darwin, Spencer, and Sumner, to the intelligence testing movement led by Galton and Binet, and lastly to the contemporary race and IQ studies of Jensen, Herrnstein, and Murray, this article maintains that science is often used as a justification to propose, project, and enact racist social policies. It begins with a review of the philosophy of Social Darwinism and of its assumptions about race and human abilities, and ends by analyzing a largely unbroached theme in this debate: the consequences of scientific racism for dominant groups. Science has often been used as a justification to propose, project, and enact racist social policies. The philosophical and political underpinnings of ideas associated with racial superiority and inferiority were first given scientific legitimacy and credence with the publication of Charles Darwin's (1859) revolutionary book, The Origin of Species. In more recent times, the controversy surrounding the publication of Herrnstein and Murray's (1994) presumably scientific study, The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life, and the reintroduction to the national conversation of powerful arguments about race and human abilities, provide yet another opportunity to focus on questions pertinent to the origins, maintenance, and consequences of human abilities and potential. In the main, however, such studies and debates reveal far more about those proposing and advocating racist arguments than about the groups toward whom they are directed. Although much attention has been directed, and justly so, toward considerations of the impact of genetic politics on excluded and oppressed populations, more attention should be placed on the negative effect these policies have on the dominant and powerful groups that enact and implement them. The present article maintains that the intellectual bases of the arguments presented in works of scientific racism are more than mere abstractions; rather, they are germane-- indeed, they are central--to both the idea of the democratic process and the question of what constitutes a "just" society. Thus, it begins with a review of the philosophy of Social Darwinism and of its assumptions about race and human abilities. It next critiques the social issues and problems addressed or exhumed by this ideology and examines some of the reasons why certain segments of American society have found its tenets so appealing. Third, in discussing the circumstances surrounding the development and introduction of intelligence testing during the early decades of the 20th century, it analyzes a largely unbroached and untapped theme in the race and human abilities debate: the consequences of scientific racism for America's dominant groups. Before the suppositions of Social Darwinism enshrined the idea of European superiority as a key feature of natural evolution and selection, the association between color (race) and intellectual predisposition had long been a topic for discussion among many European thinkers. Although Rose (1968) notes that the recognition of racial differences is longstanding and traceable through biblical and historical texts, Bernier (see Gossett, 1963), Buffon (1797), and later Gobineau (1853/1915) were to set a pattern in racialist thinking by linking color to behavior and human ability. Notwithstanding, the racist logic of these thinkers, though mostly declarative and deeply rooted in the idea of European supremacy and "colored" inferiority, lacked a grand and global philosophical and political framework within which it could logically operate. Though Darwin (1859) focused primarily on the biological evolution of animal species and almost never addressed the cultural or social consequences of this evolution for humans, others like Herbert Spencer (1874), who first coined the phrase "survival of the fittest," reasoned that Darwinist principles were intended to buttress the case that biological evolution could be equally applicable to human societies. …

Managing Understandings: Politics, Symbolism, Niche Marketing and the Quest for Legitimacy in IT Implementation:

Abstract: This paper focuses on the political processes through which legitimacy was sought for a large information technology system by its sponsors and key supporters. It is suggested that this was accomplished by means of a niche marketing campaign in which key stakeholder groups were fed radically differ ent explanations regarding the motivations which prompted investment in the system and its likely implications for them and the organization. The system was legitimated by a combination of 'rational' arguments which appealed to stakeholder self-interest and cultural norms, control over the flow of informa tion, and symbolic action. The research contribution this paper makes is to illustrate the symbolic and political processes, some of which can be inter preted as hypocritical, by which a select group attempted to manipulate other actors' understandings of a large and complex IT system.

A Case for Reinterpreted Dichotomy of Politics and Administration as a Professional Standard in Council-Manager Government

Abstract: ffectively carried out the policies of the council. Over the years, a number of scholars have suggested that such a strict interpretation might not be what early proponents of a dichotomy had intended (Golembiewski, 1977; 9-11; Cooper, 1984; 80-84; Waldo, 1984; 222-225). Nevertheless, the idea of an institutional separation has persisted and has been the foil for numerous studies. In a recent review of the literature, James Svara found consistent evidence that, almost throughout the history of the council-manager plan, managers have played an active role in the policy process. Yet instead of being settled, the issue has been "periodically rediscovered" (Svara, 1989; 77). Svara attributed the dichotomy's persistence to its partial descriptive accuracy and to its normative appeal as a guide for administrative behavior consistent with democratic theory. His own reconceptualization of council-manager relationships as a mission-management continuum appears to improve on the descriptive accuracy of the dichotomy without abandoning the idea of role separation (Svara, 1985, 1989). John Nalbandian (1991) takes a stronger position. He argues that politics has transformed the role of the city manager from that of neutral expert to community leader and problem solver. The dichotomy persists not as a guide to behavior but as an intellectual device connecting practice to theory. He seeks to replace this function of the dichotomy with an expanded base of professional values for city managers. We agree with Svara and Nalbandian that the dichotomy of policy and administration, as traditionally interpreted, prescribes roles that are neither practical nor desirable in council-manager government. On the other hand, we think that few would wish to abandon the dichotomy of politics and administration as a bulwark against certain forms of particularism, such as special favors in hiring or contracting decisions. Must we throw out the baby with the bath water? The answer depends upon what we mean by the dichotomy and how we intend to use the concept. We focus on the politics-administration dichotomy as a professional standard in council-manager government, not as a description of actual behavior. In this we follow Herbert Simon's normative interpretation of the dichotomy (1967; 88). The debate over its utility should rest, we think, on both normative issues (the values served) and empirical issues (whether such a standard can actually affect behavior in desired ways). Under this perspective, evidence that some behavior falls short of the standard is not, in itself, grounds for abandoning the standard. On the other hand, if a standard proscribes behavior, such as participation in the policy process, which is necessary to the job, then the standard may be of no value or even of negative value because it robs practitioners of legitimacy. So, it is crucial to examine exactly what the standard is and what behavior it advocates. This article is divided into two principal parts. In the first, we reinterpret the dichotomy. In the second, we explore the implications for council-manager government. Reinterpreting the Dichotomies We make the case that it is reasonable to base an interpretation of the dichotomies on the writings of Woodrow Wilson (1887) and Frank Goodnow (1900) because of their historical connection with the council-manager plan. The dichotomy of policy and administration was a conceptual distinction underlying a theory of democratic accountability. It was not intended as a guide to behavior. The dichotomy of politics and administration was intended as a behavioral prescription directed against contemporary practices of machine politics. The reformers' arguments apply as well to the broader issue of particularism in government, which is as relevant today as it was a century ago. The institutional ban on particularistic politics in administration was not a ban on discretion, as long as administrators were accountable. …

Social Contracting as a Trust Building Process of Network Governance

Abstract: Social contracting has a long and important place in the history of political philosophy (Hardin, 1991; Waldron, 1989) and as a theory of justice (Baynes, 1989; Rawls, 1971). More recently, it has been developed into an individual rights-based theory of organizations (Keeley, 1980, 1988), and as a way to integrate ethics and moral legitimacy into corporate strategy and action (Donaldson, 1982; Freeman & Gilbert, 1988). Currently, it is being proposed as an integrative theory of economic ethics (Donaldson & Dunfee, forthcoming). This paper will extend the Donaldson and Dunfee approach by arguing that social contracting can best be understood and applied in organizational settings if it is perceived and treated as a network governance process. This insight can benefit management scholars and practitioners alike, since it calls attention to the processes by which trust is created and sustained in on-going contractual relationships. It also strongly suggests that a new approach to applying managerial discretion, as moral agency, is needed to realize the full competitive and ethical potential of emerging network forms.

The Foundation of Merit: Public Service in American Democracy

Abstract: The first systematic examination of the federal civil service in nearly forty years, The Foundation of Merit analyzes the historical development of the civil service in the context of the political and democratic environment that is central to its effectiveness and legitimacy. Patricia Ingraham describes theincremental and disjointed growth of the federal civil service and explains how, and why, it came to be a system with control in the wrong places, with discretion in the wrong places, and why-in its current form-it has little hope of meeting the enormous challenges of the next century. The book concludes with an examination of the need for reform, the challenges that have shaped that need, and the lessons from the past that should guide the reforms of the future.

The Sixties : from memory to history

Abstract: This collection of original essays represents some of the most exciting ways in which historians are beginning to paint the 1960s onto the larger canvas of American history. While the first literature about this turbulent period was written largely by participants, many of the contributors to this volume are young scholars who came of age intellectually in the 1970s and 1980s and thus write from fresh perspectives. The essayists ask fundamental questions about how much America really changed in the 1960s and why certain changes took place. In separate chapters, they explore how the great issues of the decade--the war in Vietnam, race relations, youth culture, the status of women, the public role of private enterprise--were shaped by evolutions in the nature of cultural authority and political legitimacy. They argue that the whirlwind of events and problems we call the Sixties can only be understood in the context of the larger history of post-World War II America. Contents "Growth Liberalism in the Sixties: Great Societies at Home and Grand Designs Abroad," by Robert M. Collins "The American State and the Vietnam War: A Genealogy of Power," by Mary Sheila McMahon "And That's the Way It Was: The Vietnam War on the Network Nightly News," by Chester J. Pach, Jr. "Race, Ethnicity, and the Evolution of Political Legitimacy," by David R. Colburn and George E. Pozzetta "Nothing Distant about It: Women's Liberation and Sixties Radicalism," by Alice Echols "The New American Revolution: The Movement and Business," by Terry H. Anderson "Who'll Stop the Rain?: Youth Culture, Rock 'n' Roll, and Social Crises," by George Lipsitz "Sexual Revolution(s)," by Beth Bailey "The Politics of Civility," by Kenneth Cmiel "The Silent Majority and Talk about Revolution," by David Farber

The Banjul Charter and the African Cultural Fingerprint: An Evaluation of the Language of Duties

Abstract: This article questions the universality of the human rights corpus and argues that a human rights doctrine that is legitimate across cultures and traditions is not possible without the participation of the wider globe. Its purpose is to imagine and reconfigure a rights regime that could achieve legitimacy in Africa. It argues that African cultures and conceptions of man have a lot to contribute to the exercise of the reconstruction of the human rights corpus. The piece focuses attention on particular African ideas and conceptions of society, morality, and human ethos that would enrich the human rights regime and make it more legitimate in Africa.

Validity and Self-Reflexivity Meet Poststructuralism: Scientific Ethos and the Transgressive Self

Abstract: he field of educational research is currently a fertile site for the proliferation of new forms of and new approaches to inquiry. In the struggles for legitimacy of these new forms, the idea of what constitutes "valid" work has gone through many changes (See, for example, Alcoff, 1989, 1991; Cherryholmes, 1988; Clifford, 1983; Gordon, 1990; Guba & Lincoln, 1989; Kvale, 1989; Lather, 1986a, 1986b, 1991a, 1993; Lincoln & Guba, 1985; and Mishler, 1990). That is not to say that there is a coherent, linear progression of the validity discussion in which old forms are discarded in favor of new ones. Traditional validity criteria, in fact, coexist with newer criteria, depending on researchers' ontological, epistemological, and political leanings and assumptions, as well as their situational requirements. It is not my purpose to reproduce that discussion here.

Is there a Muslim Society? Ernest Gellner's sociology of Islam

Abstract: Ernest Gellner's well-known model aspires to a general interpretation of all Muslim societies, past and present. They are said to have invarying features, susceptible to analysis in terms of a common sociology, one of a dialectic between city and tribe, each with its own peculiar form of religion, and the dominance within the urban form of ulama leading a solidary community based on scripture and Divine Law. Within this configuration, political rule is always vulnerable to the double threat of the tribes at the gate and the ulama-led urban society which never fully recognizes the legitimacy of government. While modernity has ended the power of the tribes, urbanization and mass literacy have reinforced the religion-based urban ethos and its challenge to secular power, which explains the current surge of Islamism in politics. The validity of this model is questioned in the historical and the modern contexts. It is argued that there are certain cultural themes common to most Muslim lands and epochs which der...

The Monarchy and the Constitution

Abstract: In the increasingly questioning world of the 1990s, the role of the monarchy in a democracy is again coming under scrutiny. Its critics argue that the monarchy is a profoundly conservative institution which serves to inhibit social change; that it has outlived its usefulness; that it symbolizes and reinforces deference and hierachy; and that its radical reform is therefore long overdue. Rejecting these arguments Vernon Bogdanor makes a powerful case for the positive role that monarchy plays in modern democratic politics. Ranging across law, politics, and history he argues that far from undermining democracy, the monarchy sustains and strengthens democratic institutions; that constitutional monarchy is a form of government that ensures not conservatism but legitimacy. The first serious examination of the political role of the monarchy to appear in many years, this book will make fascinating reading for all those interested in the monarchy and the future of British politics.

The Politics of Electoral Reform in Italy

Abstract: Italy's 1993 electoral reforms were forced on parliament, and on the dominant party elites, by elite outsiders using the referendum instrument. The resultant parliamentary electoral system was the product neither of a rational process of institutional engineering nor even of conflicting party strategies. Whilst parliament was forced to legislate, the established parties were unable to reassert control over the reform process even during its final, legislative phase. The parties' conflicting and uncer- tain interests, and above all their spectacular loss of legitimacy in the face of massive corruption scandals (Tangentopoli), allowed the reform movement to insist on certain general terms being respected. These terms, however, had themselves been forced on the reformers by the exacting constitutional requirements of the referendum process. A democratic political mobilisation had, nevertheless, been achieved and further reform was possible, even likely, as new and old parties competed to consolidate a new party system.

Where does economic development really come from? constitutional rule among the contemporary sioux and apache

Abstract: Governments are public goods that provide the organizational and legal structures by which societies arrange and enforce “rules of the game” that enable divisions of labor, exchange, and collective action. We argue that shared, pre-constitutional cultural norms of political legitimacy among rational individuals provide the foundations of effective self-government. The performance of contemporary Apache and Sioux economies on Indian reservations governed by common federally imposed constitutions is examined to test the framework. Unlike the impoverished Sioux, the relatively successful Apaches are found to have pre-existing political norms that (serendipidously) match the structure of their formal constitution.

The limits of lockean rights in property

Abstract: A comprehensive interpretation of Locke's argument for the legitimacy of private property, and a critical assessment of that argument, including an exploration of its defensibility in modern terms, as well as its limits.