Legitimacy

About: Legitimacy is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 26153 publications have been published within this topic receiving 565921 citations.

Denouncing European integration Euroscepticism as polity contestation

Abstract: The spreading phenomenon of Euroscepticism is manifested in critical practices in discourse that oppose European integration. This paper explores Euroscepticism as an element of discourse, which ca...

Legitimacy, Hypocrisy, and the Social Structure of Unipolarity: Why Being a Unipole Isn't All It's Cracked Up to Be

Abstract: Despite preponderant power, unipoles often do not get their way. Why? Scholars interested in polarity and the systemic structures determined by the distribution of power have largely focused on material power alone, but the structure of world politics is as much social as it is material. In this article the author explores three social mechanisms that limit unipolar power and shape its possible uses. The first involves legitimation. To exercise power effectively, unipoles must legitimate it and in the act of legitimating their power, it must be diffused since legitimation lies in the hands of others. The second involves institutionalization. A common way to legitimate power is to institutionalize it. Institutionalizing power in rational-legal authorities fundamentally transforms it, however. Once in place, institutions, laws, and rules have powers and internal logics of their own that unipoles find difficult to control. The third relates to hypocrisy. The social structures of legitimation and insti tutionalization do more than simply diffuse power away from the unipole; they create incentives for hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is a double-edged sword for unipoles. On the one hand, unrestrained hypocrisy by unipoles undermines the legitimacy of their power. On the other hand, judicious hypocrisy can provide crucial strategies for melding ideals and interests. Indeed, honoring social ideals or principles in the breach can have long-lasting political effects, as decades of U.S. hypocrisy about democratization and human rights suggest.

New governance in European social policy: the open method of coordination

Abstract: The European Union is widely regarded as premised on an imbalance between market-making and market-correcting provisions, potentially weakening national welfare systems and the political legitimacy of the European project. However, a stronger role for the EU in social policy faces considerable difficulties. The Open Method of Coordination (OMC) represents a new governance approach to European social policy and was adopted in the late 1990s. It seeks to provide a 'middle-way' solution to the dilemma of European social policy in which the EU adopts a stronger role in coordinating member states' social policies while member states formally retain their authority in social policy. New Governance in European Social Policy explores the effectiveness and legitimacy of a new policy tool in European social policy, the Open Method of Coordination (OMC). It analyses the tensions within the OMC's goals and instruments, develops an explanation of its functioning and applies a multifaceted framework for its evaluation.

The new political economy of private security

Abstract: This article maps out a new research agenda for interpreting the trajectory and dynamics of domestic private security provision in advanced democratic countries: the ‘new political economy of priva...