Topic
Legitimacy
About: Legitimacy is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 26153 publications have been published within this topic receiving 565921 citations.
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors focus on issues of democratic accountability and responsiveness with these governance arrangements, arguing that until recently the legitimacy of governance networks was not at the forefront of theoretical developments, even though the "democratic deficit" of governance is problematic both for normative and for pragmatic reasons.
Abstract: . Various schools of research in public policy (the literature on ‘governance’ and its continental counterparts) are converging to focus on the growth of policy styles based on cooperation and partnership in networks, instead of on vertical control by the state. This article focuses on issues of democratic accountability and responsiveness with these governance arrangements. It argues that until recently the legitimacy of governance networks was not at the forefront of theoretical developments, even though the ‘democratic deficit’ of governance is problematic both for normative and for pragmatic reasons. There is now increased sensitivity to this problem, but the remedies presented in the literature are unsatisfactory, and critiques of governance presuppose a somewhat idealised image of representative democracy in terms of accountability or responsiveness of decision-makers. They also fail to offer adequate solutions to some of the central legitimacy problems of policy-making in complex societies.
249 citations
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01 Sep 2000
TL;DR: The authors explored what accounts for Africa's average stagnation, and for the wide regional variations in developmental fortunes, and found that there are a small but significant number of success stories on the continent.
Abstract: It is typically taken for granted that African economies perform poorly, but there are a small but significant number of success stories on the continent. This study explores what accounts for Africa's average stagnation, and for the wide regional variations in developmental fortunes.
249 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors suggested that Dutch planning could enhance both its effectiveness and legitimacy by reconsidering some of the basic features of the planning system, and they suggested that this instititutional development is to be understood against the background of larger processes of social change to which the system has so far not responded.
Abstract: The Dutch planning system rejoices a very positive reputation in the international academic planning literature. Yet both the conceptual orientation and the institutional practices of Dutch planning are eroded. New institutional practices have emerged that effectively form a 'shadow structure' to the official planning system, eroding both its effectiveness and legitimacy. The article suggests that this instititutional development is to be understood against the background of larger processes of social change to which the system has so far not responded: the coming 'network society'. In light of this analysis it is suggested that Dutch planning could enhance both its effectiveness and legitimacy by reconsidering some of the basic features of the planning system.
246 citations
01 Jan 2001
TL;DR: In this paper, the applicability and predictive power of legitimacy theory was investigated by investigating to what extent annual report disclosures are interrelated to attempts to gain, maintain and repair legitimacy; and the choice of specific legitimation tactics.
Abstract: Much of the extant research into why companies disclose environmental information in the annual report indicates that legitimacy theory is one of the more probable explanations for the increase in environmental disclosures since the early 1980s. Legitimacy theory is based on the idea that in order to continue operating successfully, corporations must act within the bounds of what society identifies as socially acceptable behaviour. The purpose of the practical research undertaken and reported in this paper is to extend the applicability and predictive power of legitimacy theory by investigating to what extent annual report disclosures are interrelated to: attempts to gain, maintain and repair legitimacy; and the choice of specific legitimation tactics. The quasi‐experimental method adopted utilised semi‐structured interviews with senior personnel from three large Australian public companies. The findings indicated support for legitimacy theory as an explanatory factor for environmental disclosures. Moreover, findings about the likelihood of specific micro‐legitimation tactics being used in response to legitimacy threatening environmental issues/events, and dependent on whether the purpose of the response is designed to gain, maintain or repair legitimacy, are reported.
246 citations