Crisis Of Legitimacy Research Articles

You’re projecting! Global Britain, European strategic autonomy and the discursive rescue of the internationalised state

ABSTRACT How do leaders respond to costly demands to re-nationalise political control? The re-shaping of state–society relations engendered by globalisation has produced a backlash in the form of populist demands to “take back control”, yet leaders face significant costs in responding to demands to re-nationalise highly interdependent economies. In this article, we show how leaders respond to these demands by crafting new discourses of their polity’s position in the international system, a process we term “discursive externalisation”. Externalisation is a cheap way of responding to domestic pressures which avoids powerful domestic veto players while benefiting from the rallying effects of foreign policy renewal. By keeping rhetoric broad, externalisation can co-opt elements of the status quo in favour of new representations of state–society relations and a new basis for political legitimacy. We demonstrate our argument empirically by examining the articulation of new discourses in the foreign and security policy domain after the 2016 Brexit referendum in both the UK and the EU. We show how ideas of “Global Britain” and “European strategic autonomy” both helped to rearticulate the relationship between the polity and its citizens by externalising agendas for internal reform, transforming crises of legitimacy into discourses of international renewal.

Food insecurity, xenophobia, and political legitimacy: exploring the links in post-COVID-19 South Africa.

Food insecurity in South Africa was critical prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, but the problem deepened quickly during the pandemic when government controls caused job losses, a food supply collapse, and escalating hunger. The food and fuel price hikes and political instability that followed led to the July 2021 'unrest', which left more than 350 people dead. Behind this lay a crisis within the governing African National Congress. In this paper, we draw on in-depth interviews and ethnography with individuals working in food-based livelihoods to investigate how people continued to secure food, and how rural food systems were affected. Against a backdrop of hunger, social unrest, and xenophobic hostility, we consider how people perceive the state in a rural area of KwaZulu-Natal. We argue that weak governing institutions and South Africa's exposure to globally-triggered spikes in food and fuel prices are leading to food insecurity. Hunger, in turn, is contributing to a crisis of legitimation for the state.

Do Community Views of Local Police Agencies Change During “Crises of Legitimacy”? Results of a Multi-wave Random Sample Community Survey in a Large Suburban Jurisdiction

AbstractGeorge Floyd’s murder by a Minneapolis Police Department officer on May 25, 2020, was arguably one of the most impactful events in modern policing in the United States. However, several controversial and highly publicized use-of-force events preceded it during the 2010s, leading to this entire period being labeled a “crisis of legitimacy” or “reckoning” for the police. Nationally, perceptions of the police declined during this period, especially after Floyd’s death, prompting a great deal of debate, protest, and discussion about police reform (including arguments about defunding the police). However, a great deal of variation exists in these perceptions at the local level. This study presents a rare insight into this issue, pooling two random-sample household mail surveys that researchers collected in 2015 and 2021 in a large urban-suburban county. It seeks to determine whether changes in specific measures of perceived police legitimacy and effectiveness found in national-level polls were also found in this jurisdiction, and more specifically, across different racial groups. Although this racially and ethnically diverse county is also a progressive Democratic stronghold, the results suggest that local views about police—even when disaggregated by race—may not align with national perspectives or events as expected, which, in turn, may impact support for police reforms at the local and national levels.

Maailman terveysjärjestön legitimiteetti ja legitimiteettikriisit COVID-19-pandemian valossa

The legitimacy of the World Health Organization in light of the COVID-19 pandemic This article provides an overview of the legitimacy and the legitimacy crises of the World Health Organization (WHO). During the COVID-19 pandemic, in the era of social media, WHO’s legitimacy crisis has appeared to be historically strong. Based on previous quantitative and qualitative research, the article assesses factors influencing the legitimacy of the WHO. The article identifies the most significant legitimacy crises of the WHO, and examines the similarities and differences between the crises. The legitimacy crises of the WHO are intertwined with infectious disease epidemics. In these situations, the WHO, with its measures and recommendations, becomes under public scrutiny due to increased media visibility. Moreover, the WHO gets merged into international and national political struggles. With the COVID-19 pandemic, research on the legitimacy of the WHO is timely and necessary. Through this comprehensive overview of the...

Evolving Normative Dynamics: Understanding China's Varied Approaches to Overseas Corporate Social Responsibility in the Belt and Road Initiative Era

China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is nowadays a global development initiative, with which China pursues a new international identity as a “responsible major country.” The inadequate fulfilment of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in BRI partner countries however has tainted the BRI's cooperative “win–win” principle and sparked external legitimacy crises. This study explores how Chinese policymakers respond to overseas CSR challenges in the realms of environmental and societal responsibility. By integrating both constructivist and rationalist elements, we employ three key variables to facilitate cross-case comparisons. Our analysis reveals that China has favoured a parallel overseas CSR governance system that allows for tailored responses to specific contexts. China's nuanced approaches to international CSR standards reflect rational decisions influenced by issue-specific domestic–international normative fit, perceived legitimacy of the relevant international regime, and the significance of each issue to China's global status. This research offers insights into China's contextualised engagement with international CSR norms in the BRI era.

‘I am a Scaffolder’: Constructing Safety Knowledge and Machismo in ‘Dirty Work’

This article investigates how Hong Kong scaffolders navigate and make sense of everyday dangerous work which is stigmatized in a highly aspirational society. With the theoretical lens of ‘dirty work’, we examine what attracts the scaffolders into the occupation, how they perceive and navigate risk, and how they construct the knowledge that enables them to function safely as skilled craftsmen. We found that the sector attracts young men from disadvantaged backgrounds and with links to the criminal underworld, who respond to social stigma by constructing an identity of intrepid performers and enacting unsafe high-risk activities and brinkmanship. Yet, their traditional knowledge and practices now face obsolescence due to pressure to standardize safety training and practice, and also due to an internal crisis of occupational legitimacy. This article contributes to our understanding of the analytical lens of ‘dirty work’ in macho cultures.

Is the U.S. Supreme Court Facing a Crisis of Democratic Legitimacy? A Review Article

Abstract Kevin McMahon's A Supreme Court Unlike Any Other examines the extent to which the current Supreme Court—and its conservative supermajority—departs from earlier courts in the extent to which it suffers from a “democracy gap.” McMahon persuasively argues that the current Court is different for two reasons. First, most of the justices in the conservative majority were appointed by presidents who did not win the popular vote and/or were confirmed by senators who represented fewer voters than the senators who opposed them. Second, the homogenization of nominee experience and background has created a “judicial aristocracy” in which the justices are experientially far removed from the elected branches. One puzzle this account raises is why this democracy gap took so long to emerge, given the institutional design of the Court. But given the current polarized state of American politics, the same forces that brought us to the reality of the conservative supermajority are unlikely to abate for quite some time.

The Rise of Tech Ethics: Approaches, Critique, and Future Pathways

In this editorial to the Topical Collection “Innovation under Fire: The Rise of Ethics in Tech”, we provide an overview of the papers gathered in the collection, reflect on similarities and differences in their analytical angles and methodological approaches, and carve out some of the cross-cutting themes that emerge from research on the production of ‘Tech Ethics’. We identify two recurring ways through which ‘Tech Ethics’ are studied and forms of critique towards them developed, which we argue diverge primarily in their a priori commitments towards what ethical tech is and how it should best be pursued. Beyond these differences, we observe how current research on ‘Tech Ethics’ evidences a close relationship between public controversies about technological innovation and the rise of ethics discourses and instruments for their settlement, producing legitimacy crises for ‘Tech Ethics’ in and of itself. ‘Tech Ethics’ is not only instrumental for governing technoscientific projects in the present but is equally instrumental for the construction of socio-technical imaginaries and the essentialization of technological futures. We suggest that efforts to reach beyond single case-studies are needed and call for collective reflection on joint issues and challenges to advance the critical project of ‘Tech Ethics’.

Perceptions of Evidence in the Veterinary Medicine of Pets

Veterinary medicine for small domestic animals (SDA) in Russia began its development in the 1990s and is currently undergoing professional formation, engaging in a dialogue with traditional agricultural veterinary medicine. Over the last decade, the evidence-based approach has been actively developing as a foundation for making informed decisions in various aspects of professional practice. SDA veterinary medicine, as a relatively young and emerging professional field within the conservative profession of veterinary medicine, is facing a legitimacy crisis. This crisis is related to the lack of specialized education in the pathology of dogs and cats, as well as the absence of treatment protocols for SDA approved by the professional community and the state. The evidence-based approach is the foundation of modern medicine and serves as a method of legitimizing SDA veterinary practice. It addresses the needs of the primary stakeholders: colleagues, government regulators in case of disputes, and animal owners as service consumers.

Developmentalism, technocracy and legitimacy crises of humanities: A Third World perspective

PurposeThe visible ill-effects of the developmental enterprises in the ex-colonies and the tendency towards technocratic totalitarianism, in many ways, have altered the way modern humans perceived the idea of “progress” and “development” historically since the Cold War. This paper presents a deconstructive-transdisciplinary critique of the pervasive ideology by focusing on three nodal points in the stages of “development”: (1) the rise of technocratic modern science; (2) the making of the Third World; and (3) de-legitimisation of its indigenous knowledge paradigms.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on the first-hand accounts of the researchers, social scientists, activists and environmentalists, this paper presents an extensive critique of the violence involved in the development enterprises and recommends possible ways to move beyond the developmental hegemony. This paper is a theoretical investigation that adopts an interpretative, pluralistic, transdisciplinary approach, in order to deconstruct the development ideology and analyse the ramifications of the developmental propaganda and practice as they unfolded in the Global South.FindingsThis paper highlights the need to decondition the social imaginary from the hegemony of developmentalism and its by-product scientism and “technological rationality” for an inclusive, pluralistic, democratic social order.Research limitations/implicationsThe focal area of this work is India in particular and Global South in general. It studies the era between the 1950s and 1980s when the major development enterprises took place and studies the consequences they entailed.Social implicationsThe scope of this paper encompasses every socio-economic, ecological and epistemological domain affected by the detrimental effects of the developmental enterprises in the Global South.Originality/valueThe originality of this work lies in its transdisciplinary approach. The scope of this paper is extensive and covers nearly every domain of human existence that has been affected by the development debacle and technocratic totalitarianism in the post-War era.

The Automated Administrative State: A Crisis of Legitimacy

The legitimacy of the administrative state is premised on our faith in agency expertise. Despite their extra-constitutional structure, administrative agencies have been on firm footing for a long time in reverence to their critical role in governing a complex, evolving society. They are delegated enormous power because they respond expertly and nimbly to evolving conditions. In recent decades, state and federal agencies have embraced a novel mode of operation: automation. Agencies rely more and more on software and algorithms in carrying out their delegated responsibilities. The automated administrative state, however, is demonstrably riddled with concerns. Legal challenges regarding the denial of benefits and rights—from travel to disability—have revealed a pernicious pattern of bizarre and unintelligible outcomes. Scholarship to date has explored the pitfalls of automation with a particular frame, asking how we might ensure that automation honors existing legal commitments such as due process. Missing from the conversation are broader, structural critiques of the legitimacy of agencies that automate. Automation abdicates the expertise and nimbleness that justify the administrative state, undermining the very case for the existence and authority of agencies. Yet the answer is not to deny agencies access to technology that other twenty-first century institutions rely upon. This Article points toward a positive vision of the administrative state that adopts tools only when they enhance, rather than undermine, the underpinnings of agency legitimacy.

The Crisis of Technology and the Quest for Meaning: A Critical Conception of Media Philosophy

The crisis of modern technology has led to a series of issues such as the pervasive emptiness of meaning and the loss of subjectivity in human society. Under the influence of technological supremacy and instrumental rationality, philosophy, which abstractly refines the fundamental problems faced by humanity such as the meaning of existence, truth, and the dichotomy between rationality and irrationality, also finds itself in a crisis of legitimacy. In this context, the "media turn" in philosophy is an attempt to break free from its shackles. This paper proposes a media philosophy from the essential attributes of human communication and the inseparability of communication and media. By analyzing communication as a fundamental human essence, this paper outlines the basic concept of media philosophy, explores the path of media philosophy, and emphasizes the inherent significance of the collision of life's meanings and communicative exchanges. This paper asserts that in the era of "media as being" ontology, it is especially necessary to understand the essence of human existence and the face of the world constituted by communication from the perspective of media.

The web of Big Lies: state-sponsored disinformation in Iran

ABSTRACT The 2022 ‘Women, Life, Freedom’ protests in Iran have led to the escalation of state-sponsored online disinformation campaigns. This paper aims to examine how, amidst a growing legitimacy crisis, the Iranian regime has employed a ‘Big Lie’ to shatter hopes for change by discrediting influential dissidents and hindering the formation of an effective opposition movement. Three target groups have borne the brunt of this strategy: celebrities, political dissidents inside the country, and prominent opponents in the diaspora. By reviewing state-owned media content and tweets, this paper reveals a consistent pattern of character assassination against dissidents. The ruling regime’s ultimate goal is to foster a sense of public hopelessness for an alternative to the Islamic Republic. By conceptualizing the Big Lie online, the study engages with the mechanism of control in modern despotism in the age of the internet and social media.

THE (IN)EFFECTIVENESS OF REQUIRING PRIOR EXHAUSTION OF LOCAL REMEDIES IN INVESTMENT ARBITRATION

The international investment-law regime continues to be mired in a legitimacy crisis that has given rise to important multilateral reform efforts through the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law. A key reform proposal is centred on the introduction of an exhaustion-of-local-remedies requirement. This article critically evaluates the exhaustion-of-local-remedies rule in the context of international investment law, and challenges its interpretation where such clauses already exist in contemporary investment law. The article concludes that investment tribunals have subverted these clauses in various ways, and considers the legal challenges states would need to address to best prevent the subversion of these clauses by investment tribunals in future.

The Impact of Religion and Culture on Political Corruption in Akinyele Local Government Area of Oyo State: A Case Study of 2015 General Elections

This study examines the impact of religion and culture on political corruption in Akinyele Local Government Area of Oyo State in reference to 2015 general elections. Many local governments in Nigeria lack many developments, social amenities, health facilities, rural development and power supply due to the syndrome of corruption and autonomy independence to control their resources without the state interference due to that scenario, lack of accountability, lack of credible leadership, instability of political and socioeconomic development as take place. Culture and religion as influenced voting patterns of the electorate during the 2015 Presidential general elections. The impacts of corruption on the politics of the country include the crisis of legitimacy, lack of party ideology, weak political institutions; economic underdevelopment and political violence and the role of “Godfatherism” as initiated electoral corruption. Some power brokers with sufficient financial muscles sponsored their anointed godsons for political offices in return for lucrative contracts and spoils of the public treasury looting. They sponsored thugs, bribed the electoral stakeholders, and influenced voters through vote buying and all sorts of electoral manipulation to ensure that their candidates scale through and control power at all levels. The questionnaire and the structured questions formulated by the researchers were given to project supervisor, who criticized and that the instruments are validated, for they were seen measuring what were expected to measure. Findings revealed that a total number of 30 respondents represented (22.3%) candidate’s choice, 27 respondents represented (20.1%) election campaign, 23 respondents represented (17.1%) family background, while 54 respondents represented (40.2%) religious belief. This implies that majority of the respondents in this study agreed that religious belief is the means by which religion and culture influenced the voting pattern of Akinyele Local Government Area in the 2015 general elections. The study recommends that all candidates contesting for any political office must declare their assets publicly to avoid cases of corruption.

Кризис теории и практики правозащитного действия

This article explores problem of the liberal rights and freedoms conceptualization and crisis of the human rights institutions legitimacy, the prospects for theory and practice of the modern defense of human rights. The author believes the human rights institutions to be currently in crisis mode because of their inability to overcome their dependence on the liberal doctrine of rights and freedoms being innate. This doctrine was imposed on the society as the only valid ideology that does not need any scientific verification or ethical mediation and basically is a quasi-religious phenomenon. Today the defense of human rights is the enforcement authority and a political subsystem, as it legitimates and delegitimates political subjects. The human rights institutions can retain their role in society by overcoming their dependence on liberal and other ideologies, abandoning the obsolete enlightenment concept of innate rights and acknowledging the priority of morality in the society.

Cyber Activism in Iran: A Case Study

One of the most obvious characteristics of Iran’s protests in September 2022 is the emergence of a type of cyber activism that, unlike mass activism, is formed first in cyberspace. Networks have redefined social action and structure in our societies and have important consequences on production processes, power, and culture, challenging political systems, and creating legitimacy crises. The subject of the present research is important because cyber activism has an external aspect and has changed the shape of Iran’s social movements. This article is based on the Twitter data analysis method and using MAXQDA. Referring to Castells’ network society theory, it addresses this question: What role did the Twitter play in September 2022 in Mahsa Amini’s social movement? This article shows that the Twitter, in the context of existing dissatisfactions and in the absence of active organizations and parties, has led to an increase in cyberactivism in Iran. This cyberactivism encompasses mass self-communication, occupation of urban space, horizontal leadership, globalization of messages, mobilization and guidance of public opinion, nationalism, the subjectivity of women, and their identification has been its external manifestation.

Banditry, institutional weakness and the Zamfara State amnesty programme

This article demonstrates how institutional weakness makes amnesty, as a conflict management strategy, ineffective as found in Zamfara State; and how prioritising human security can help combat insecurity. Using Weak Institutions of State as a framework of analysis, the article argued that factors such as loss of territorial control or the sole use of force, crisis of legitimacy, mass poverty, corruption and inability to provide basic services to the citizens as characteristic of states with institutional weakness, create very complex security problems that amnesty is incapable of addressing effectively. Rather than mitigate insecurity, weak institutions in a state further fuel it by creating opportunities for both state and non-state actors to exploit the offer of amnesty for personal enrichment. This article adopted the documentary method of data collection, using deduction and inferences as analytical methods. Based on its findings, the study recommends the need for a more sustainable approach to conflict management that can benefit a larger number of citizens.

Identifying Problems of International Investment Law (IIL) and Evaluating the Focus of Reform Initiatives

The normative structure of international investment law is highly asymmetrical. Generally, current IIAs grant investors significant substantive and procedural rights, while States and affected communities often lack equivalent safeguard. In recent years, scholars have critcised and identified many problems including human rights concerns ingrained in the international investment law framework. The States and other stakeholders also raised many concerns regarding international investment agreements and investor-State dispute settlement. Moreover, there’s agreement on the need for comprehensive reform of IIL to make ISDS effective. Yet, issues with ISDS go beyond systemic flaws, also entrenched in substantive deficiencies in existing IIAs. Furthermore, the current legitimacy crisis provides a unique chance to amend the international IIAs comprehensively. However, the WGIII and ICSID reform initiative primarily focuses on procedural aspects of ISDS, avoiding substantive issues raised by various stakeholders. While procedural reforms are essential, resolving substantive issues is equally necessary.

Protecting National Sovereignty: The ‘Australian Model’ and the Exclusion of Asylum Seekers

Increasingly, the ‘Australian model’ of offshore detention is promoted to restrict asylum seeker migration and preserve national sovereignty. This article analyses metaphor usage within press coverage of immigration to examine the origins of this discourse. Focusing on two high points of asylum seeker arrivals (2001–2002, 2012–2013), I demonstrate how negative metaphor use constructed asylum seekers as racialized, illegitimate, illegal Others, who breached Australian sovereignty. I argue that this was a response to a crisis of settler-colonial legitimacy, exacerbated by calls for Indigenous sovereignty, with anti-asylum discourse utilized as a tool to negate and neutralize Indigenous sovereignty claims and legitimate settler-colonial state power. I further argue that sovereignty claims were employed to reinforce Australia’s positioning within regional hierarchies of power, through the enactment of offshore processing agreements with less powerful, ostensibly ‘sovereign’ nations, thereby reaffirming and legitimating a racialized, neo-colonial ordering of the world.