Legitimacy Deficit Research Articles

Family Debilitation: Migrant Child Detention and the Aesthetic Regime of Neoliberal Authoritarianism

This paper proposes the term “family debilitation” to point to the ways that institutionalized child abuse operates to perversely generate biopolitical authority, a strategy of negative biopolitics that is integral to the aesthetic regimes of settler colonialism and neoliberal authoritarianism. The paper attends to two scenes of child detention in the US: Scene 1 US/Mexico Border 2017 concerns migrant children caught up in the bordering regimes of Donald Trump’s America; Scene 2 Pennsylvania 1879 concerns indigenous children caught up in the disciplinary regimes of “civilizing” education. As we attend to the connections between these scenes an argument emerges that situates racialized child detention and abuse within the aesthetic technologies biopolitical sovereignty. The “problem” to which these practices serve as a kind of technical answer is not any kind of problem with migrant and indigenous families themselves but rather is a problem of government—specifically the legitimacy deficit that exists where biopolitical states openly participate in dispossession and the destruction of life.

Climate clubs: politically feasible and desirable?

ABSTRACT The idea of a stringent climate club, once the reserve of academic debates, is quickly gaining ground in international policy circles. This reflects dissatisfaction with the multilateral UNFCCC process, but also hope that a minilateral club could increase climate policy ambition, reinvigorate the Paris Agreement process, and make future emissions pledges stick. With the Biden Presidency renewing the US commitment toward climate action and the European Green Deal proposal for carbon border tariffs, some are advocating the creation of a transatlantic climate club. What could a club approach hope to achieve, and what do we know about its political feasibility and desirability? In this article, we seek conceptual clarification by establishing a typology of different club models; we inject a greater sense of political realism into current debates on the feasibility of these models; and we consider their legitimacy in the context of international climate cooperation. Key policy insights Knowledge gaps and confusion regarding the nature of climate clubs hold back debates about what intergovernmental clubs can contribute to international climate policy. Club design matters: existing club models vary in terms of the proposed size, purpose, operational principles, legal strength, and relationship to the UNFCCC. Clubs focused on normative commitments face low barriers to establishment. They lack legal strength but can help raise policy ambition. Clubs aimed at negotiating targets and measures can increase bargaining efficiency, but struggle to deal with equity and distributional conflicts. Clubs seeking to change incentives via club benefits and sanctions face the highest hurdles to implementation. Their promise to tackle free-riding remains untested and difficult to achieve. Climate clubs face an international legitimacy deficit. Any club proposal needs to consider how to add to, and not distract from, the multilateral climate regime.

Who Avoids Entrepreneurship Scholarship?

Some scholars assert that entrepreneurship has attained “considerable” legitimacy. Others assert that it “is still fighting” for complete acceptance. This study explores the question, extrapolating from studies of an “elite effect” in which the publications of the highest ranked schools differ from other research intensive schools. It finds that the legitimacy deficit is highly specific. Compared with major research business schools, the most elite business schools in the U.S., but not the U.K., are found to allocate significantly more publications to mathematically sophisticated “analytical” fields such as economics and finance, rather than entrepreneurship and other “managerial” fields. The U.S. elites do not look down upon entrepreneurship as such. They look down upon journals that lack high mathematics content. Leading entrepreneurship journals, except Small Business Economics (SBE), are particularly lacking. The conclusion argues that SBE can help the field’s legitimacy, but that other journals should not imitate analytical paradigms.

Moral versus pragmatic legitimacy and corporate anti-bribery disclosure: evidence from Australia

ABSTRACT This study examines how the notions of moral and pragmatic legitimacy explain the role of the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) corporate governance guidelines on anti-bribery disclosure practices by Australian companies. In particular, by focusing on the largest 100 ASX-listed companies between 2001 and 2011, we aim to explore how the competing notions of pragmatic and moral legitimacy explain anti-bribery disclosure practices and how, during moments of crisis, managers, via anti-bribery disclosures, create a deficit of moral legitimacy in pursuing pragmatic legitimacy. This paper finds that generally anti-bribery disclosures respond to the ASX corporate governance disclosure guidelines – the norms that the broader community expects to be in place for businesses to be socially and ethically accountable. In particular, we find that when responding to the disclosure guidelines, managers are inclined to avoid disclosing actual incidents of bribery that have already been reported by the news media, consistent with avoiding possible financial penalties and protecting managerial and shareholders’ interests. Such a corporate response is a compromise between maintaining moral legitimacy and gaining pragmatic legitimacy. The lack of corporate response to incidents of bribery, in turn creates a deficit in moral legitimacy.

Legal yet Illegitimate Governance in Italy

For several decades Naples has exemplified the deficit of legitimacy that now outstandingly mars public life in Italy and across many democracies. Drawing on ethnographic evidence from extended anthropological field research, this article examines the increasing gap between rulers and the ruled, which jeopardizes the authority, therefore legitimacy, of governance. With a focus on this major Italian city, the discussion leads to the conclusion that this gap and its ramifications are a substantial threat to democracy that urgently needs to be understood in depth and comprehensively, eschewing both conceptual superimposition and ideological bias organic to vested interests.

Certification Relics: Entrepreneurship Amidst Discontinued Certifications

We explore a key tension between certification and entrepreneurial entry. On the one hand, more stringent certifications may provide greater legitimacy. On the other hand, market entry may be facilitated by easing such standards. To reconcile this tension, we examine discontinued certifications. We draw on research into how new ventures use certifications to gain legitimacy, along with quantitative data from new venture credit records. We show that after a certification is discontinued, new ventures in emerging industries continue to conform to these discontinued certified standards. Our study shows that those whose attributes do not provide other sources of legitimacy (e.g., unconventional founders in emerging industries) are more likely than other new ventures to comply with discontinued certification. However, those with other legitimating attributes (e.g., elite institution alumni founders) can overcome such legitimacy deficits and take advantage of new rules easing entry. Overall, our findings show that discontinued certifications can become certification “relics” whose standards continue to linger and influence entry, even after they are no longer formally in effect. Our study and its findings enhance our understanding of institutional support for new ventures, as well as the repertoire of strategic actions available to new ventures to gain legitimacy and acceptance in the face of institutional change.

The symbiotic tensions of the regulatory–carceral state: The case of cannabis legalization

AbstractRecent scholarship has emphasized the need to develop a polymorphic conceptualization of the regulatory state. This article contributes to this theory‐building project by outlining a research agenda for exploring the symbiotic interactions and tensions between the regulatory and carceral morphs of the state. Using the case study of cannabis legalization reforms in the United States, we argue that the legitimation deficits of the carceral state stimulate the proliferation of new regulatory frameworks for governing social problems that were traditionally handled by the criminal justice system. We demonstrate how the polymorphic approach illuminates the ways in which the regulatory and carceral morphs of the state compete for influence over shared policy domains, but also complement and reinforce one another. Thus, rather than precipitating the demise of the carceral state, cannabis legalization reforms sustain a bifurcated governance structure perpetuating long‐standing patterns of using drug law as a means for racialized social control.

Between legality and legitimacy: The courtroom as a site of resistance in the criminalization of migration

The criminalization of migration-related acts, rather than simply strengthening state authority, also represents a risk of exposing legal legitimacy deficits. By drawing on juridical analysis of court judgements, legal documents, and case law, together with ethnographic observation in court and analysis of media coverage, the article argues for acknowledging the extra-legal aspects of criminalization. By employing the concept of legal consciousness, we bring attention to how bordering processes are challenged from below by using the courtroom to expose potential legitimacy deficits concerning crimmigration enforcement. The article shows how the courtroom is not merely a place for convictions but also a site for resistance and social mobilization: a platform that may give marginalized groups voice and visibility, invoking a complex picture of state power, involving the ability to use force as well as reluctance and ambivalence connected to the questionable legitimacy of criminalization strategies.

A “Legal Eccentricity”: The European Parliament, its Non-binding Resolution, and the Legitimacy of the EU’s Trade Agreements

The European Union is pursuing an ambitious trade agenda despite the increased controversy over the negotiating process and substance of trade agreements. This controversy raises questions about the legitimacy of trade agreements, as Cecilia Malmstrom, former European Commissioner for Trade, has acknowledged. This paper seeks to evaluate the legitimacy of the EU’s agreements, with a focus on the role of the European Parliament as a legitimating actor, given its position as the democratic representative of the public. It argues that the Treaties do not provide for sufficient legitimacy and then considers whether Parliament has been able to use its informal governance tools, particularly the non-binding resolution, to narrow the legitimacy deficit.

Globalised citizenship and the perceived legitimacy of immigration control: narratives and acts of resistance in immigration detention

AbstractThis article considers the legitimacy deficits of immigration control in the eyes of unwanted migrants. We explore the consequences of globalisation-related changes in the institution of citizenship for the perceived legitimacy and operation of immigration control. The study is based on ethnographic research and in-depth interviews in 2018 with 35 migrants in the Detention Centre Rotterdam, the Netherlands. We find that immigration detainees use both denationalised and transnational/cosmopolitan definitions of citizenship and belonging to contest the legitimacy of restrictive admission requirements and, to a lesser extent, the authority of states to stipulate and implement admission requirements. Based on these narratives, immigration detainees engage in forms of resistance that are meant to diminish the likelihood of deportation (‘instrumental resistance’) and in forms of resistance that are unlikely to change the outcome of the deportation procedure yet do make immigration control more costly for states (‘expressive resistance’). The narratives and strategies of resistance seem correlated with length of stay: settled migrants seem more inclined to use denationalised repertoires and instrumental resistance. Our analysis confirms the need for migration scholars to pay more attention to changing social norms regarding the perceived legitimacy of immigration control for the operation and outcomes of immigration control. The results are therefore relevant for our thinking about the future of migration governance in the context of globalisation-related changes in the institution of citizenship.

The neutralisation of the political. Carl Schmitt and the depoliticisation of Europe

ABSTRACT Making use of Carl Schmitt’s theoretical tool kit, in this article, we intend to offer an insight into the liberal depoliticisation presupposed and sustained by the process of European integration. We argue that the comprehension of the current deficit of legitimacy of the EU – materialised in a formal self-constitution (which dismisses completely the question of the European demos) and a technocratic governance whose liberal-authoritarian traits produces an essential insulation of the decision-making processes – must pass through an engagement with the epochal and ideological conditions upon which it has been thought; that is the necessity to find a solution to the endless European civil war, on the ground of widespread liberal forms of depoliticisation. In the exaltation of the law as a supreme/exclusive means of an indefinite process of integration, the political soul of integration has become lost, caged in formalist procedures deliberately intended to depoliticize the decision-making process. Leaning on Schmitt’s concept of ‘neutralisation’ and ‘depoliticisation’ is functional to the comprehension of how the process of European integration has used the law, a liberal ethos and market economy and as strategies to thwart the political.

Thailand’s Engagement with China’s Belt and Road Initiative: Strong Will, Slow Implementation

The Thai ruling elites ostensibly desire to embrace China’s Belt Road Initiative (BRI), but why has this not resulted in more extensive engagement with the BRI? Why has BRI project implementation in Thailand been extremely slow despite the elites’ public pledges? This article addresses this puzzle by arguing that the gap between the pledges and slow project implementation stems from the deep contestation for authority and legitimacy between two sociopolitical coalitions: a conservative faction clustered around the palace, the military, the Democrat Party, and the yellow shirts and a faction centered on former leader Thaksin Shinawatra. Both sides generally favor engaging China for pragmatic purposes. There is little disagreement over whether or not to build a high-speed railway. Rather, the issues are how best to pursue and implement this project, how China should be involved, and which parties the project should benefit. The two camps have repeatedly modified the railway’s construction plan to appeal to their different support bases. In addition to political opposition, such long-standing contestation has encouraged bureaucratic foot-dragging, which undermines the progress of the project, especially when the government suffers from a deficit in democratic legitimacy.

The global politics paradigm: guide to the future or only the recent past?

AbstractMichael Zürn's A Theory of Global Governance is a major theoretical statement. The first section of this essay summarizes Zürn's argument, pointing out that his Global Politics Paradigm views contestation as generated endogenously from the dilemmas and contradictions of reflexive authority relationships. Authoritative international institutions, he maintains, have difficulty maintaining their legitimacy in a world suffused with democratic values. The second section systematically compares Zürn's Global Politics Paradigm with both Realism and Cooperation Theory, arguing that the three paradigms have different scope conditions and are therefore as much complementary as competitive. The third section questions the relevance of Zürn's argument to contemporary reality. Great power conflict and authoritarian populism in formerly democratic countries generate existential threats to multilateralism and global institutions that are more serious than Zürn's legitimacy deficits.

Avrupa Birliği’nin Birleşmiş Milletlere Destek Amacıyla Sahra-Altı Afrika’da Yürütmüş Olduğu Kriz Yönetimi Operasyonları: Meşruiyet Meselesi

This article aims to analyse legitimacy of military crisis management operations carried out by the EU in support of the UN in sub-Saharan Africa by using Mark Suchman’s typology of organizational legitimacy including pragmatic, moral and cognitive legitimacy. These three types of legitimacy are tested through analysing four cases in which EU has engaged in sub-Saharan Africa in support of the UN: Operation Artemis (2003), EUFOR RD CONGO (2006), EUFOR Tchad/RCA (2008-2009) and EUFOR RCA (2014-2015). In terms of pragmatic legitimacy, the EU enjoys high level of legitimacy, because these operations served both institutional interests of the EU and self-interests of some member states, particularly France. With regard to moral legitimacy, the EU suffers from a legitimacy deficit. Although declared motives for the launch of these operations was to help the UN in fulfilling its responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security, indeed, EU engagement in these crisis management operations was to a significant degree driven by the institutional interests of the EU and interests of some individual member states. Moreover, all operations were UN-mandated autonomous EU military operations rather than integrated EU troops in UN-led operations. Thus, real motivation for launching the operations and their modalities undermined moral legitimacy of these operations, because it casted doubts on whether these operations has served the global common good or not. Furthermore, EU’s utilitarian, selective and self-interested use of its crisis management tool puts limit on the EU’s future reliability and taken-for-grantedness as a UN partner in protecting and promoting international peace and security, and thus resulted in cognitive legitimacy deficit.

Devlet ve Devlet-dışı Aktörler arasında Küresel İklim Yönetişimi: Çekişme ve Yeniden Meşrulaştırma Dinamikleri

Global climate governance is one of the most complex global governance systems that is also ridden with
 divergent interests of states and non-state actors. Since the 2000s, the authority of UN-led global climate
 governance has been contested by the states declining their mitigation targets of the Kyoto Protocol and by
 those that find the international climate negotiations inefficient to ramp up climate action. These divergent
 views of states resulted in the counter-institutionalization apparent in the proliferation of minilateral
 forums and hybrid coalitions of climate initiatives oftentimes bringing states and non-state actors together.
 These non-UNFCCC partnerships have functioned to be strategic actions that put pressure on the global
 climate governance system to re-legitimate itself. Meanwhile, transnational actors have also contested the
 same system demanding a deeper cooperation that will keep the temperature goal below 2 degrees. This
 study argues that with its new mode of governance named hybrid multilateralism, the Paris Agreement
 was actually an institutional adaptation to the contestations by states and non-state actors in the forms
 of counter-institutionalization and politicization. It also discusses the problematic sides of the functions
 that non-state actors are expected to provide in this new governance mode. This paper is composed of
 four parts: firstly, the theoretical background that feeds into the analysis of empirical data with regard to
 global climate governance will be presented. Secondly, beginning from the Rio Conference, milestone
 developments in global climate governance will be examined by taking the contestation by the states into
 consideration. In the third part, the process of the politicization of climate change in which transnational
 actors and specifically the climate change movement demanded more decisive climate action will be
 explicated. In the last part, the existing legitimacy deficits with regard to non-state actors in post-Paris
 climate governance will be elaborated.

The Five Tasks of Public Value Management: Public Value as a Programme of Administrative and Societal Democratisation

Abstract The aim of this essay is threefold: (1) to identify the tasks of public managers in public value management (PVM), (2) to start a debate on the relationships between autonomy, entrepreneurship and PVM from the perspective of institutional roles and management levels, and (3) to initiate a discussion about the transferability of PVM to diverse administrative systems and cultures. The public value discourse emerged in the 1990s, justifying the need for the concept through a deficit in democratic legitimacy, the delivery paradox, as well as market failure and the critique of New Public Management. Public value focuses on the ultimate purpose of the use of public resources and can thus serve to strengthen outcome legitimacy and downward accountability. Arguably, the most productive interpretation of the public value concept rests along the lines of a normative, conceptual orientation for managerial action, accompanied by a (so far somewhat sparse) set of practical tools and reasoning for public managers. Five tasks of PVM were identified: (1) conducting political management to secure legitimacy for particular value propositions; (2) leveraging public value opportunities through networks and a range of delivery mechanisms; (3) ensuring continuing democratisation through helping the realisation of politically empowered citizenship; (4) ensuring learning across multiple levels and audiences; and (5) cultivating a wider view of sustainable wellbeing for all. Regarding the applicability of PVM across various dimensions of administrative traditions and cultures, it would seem that the tasks are more compatible with some cultures and traditions than others. For instance, these roles seem more compatible with non-politicised public administrations that grant high societal status and discretion to civil servants, and provide them with generalist training and career options. One of the key open questions is under what conditions can a public value approach contribute to changes in the given public administration culture, in particular towards the development of downward accountability mechanisms in the context of democratic backsliding and constraints to bureaucratic autonomy.

Expectativas desencaixadas: o problema da construção da autolegitimidade entre policiais militares

Resumo O artigo trata da construção da autolegitimidade de policiais a partir de pesquisa qualitativa realizada com praças da Polícia Militar de São Paulo (PMESP). O objetivo é analisar o impacto das percepções e expectativas dos policiais sobre as atividades de policiamento na construção da legitimidade reivindicada por eles. Parte-se da concepção de legitimidade policial como processo dialógico continuamente atualizado nos contatos com a população. Foram realizadas 28 entrevistas em profundidade com praças da PMESP em oito distritos da cidade de São Paulo. As análises indicam uma disjunção entre a visão dos policiais sobre sua função e autoridade e a percepção sobre as respostas da população. Os entrevistados demonstram confiança em sua autoridade e valorização do trabalho de controle do crime, mas percebem um déficit de legitimidade nas respostas da população, que questiona sua autoridade nas abordagens. Consideram ainda certas demandas da população como excessivas e desvios de sua função.

All trust is local: Sustainable development, trust in government and legitimacy in northern mining projects

Gaining and maintaining legitimacy serves as one of the central goals for public officials for the sake of efficacy. Operating in a legitimacy deficit raises both political and economic costs as citizens lose trust in public institutions and processes hit delays and policy is ignored. For administrators tasked with resource extraction, strong incentives exist to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their activities. To do this, understanding the citizens directly affected by resource development – their values and beliefs on sustainability – aids government in accomplishing its goals with lower costs. The greater the congruence between government and citizens perspectives, the greater the legitimacy. Norrbotten and Västerbotten, Sweden and Saskatchewan, Canada serve as the two cases in this paper. Both jurisdictions have established mining operations and, in the international context, strong regulatory frameworks. Further, during the mineral price boom, both regions saw increased foreign investment and new mine applications. Using survey data that focused on the perspective and values of residents living near potential mining operations, we look at the connection between trust in government and the acceptability of mining. Our findings indicate that trust in government holds the potential to overcome differences in values on sustainability; important for the on-going contentious debates on resource development.

Adaptive Authoritarian Resilience: Cambodian Strongman’s Quest for Legitimacy

ABSTRACT Hun Sen has ruled as Cambodia’s prime minister for over three decades, making him one of the world’s most durable political leaders. Studies of Cambodia’s politics tend to portray him as a powerful strongman. They also explain major bases of his power consolidation such as his use of repression, patron–client network politics, personalised control of the country, electoral and political manipulation and resource exploitation. However, while the leader’s investment in it for his political durability has been continuous and ubiquitous in the literature, the legitimation as an important base of Hun Sen’s power has been less appreciated. This article addresses this gap. While agreeing that Hun Sen is a strongman, it is argued that he has remained politically vulnerable because the aforementioned bases of power are inadequate in dealing with the challenges his rule faces. Hun Sen’s regime has to grapple with constant legitimacy deficits. This article argues that the quest for legitimacy has been effective, contributing to his political survival and this constitutes an important feature of Hun Sen’s adaptive authoritarian resilience.

Challenging the Rule of Political Liberalism

Abstract The origin of the ongoing conflict between the EU and Poland may, according to the author, partly be subscribed to the EU-institutions conceptualization of the rule of law. This conceptualization, which in the article is referred to as “the rule of political liberalism”, establishes a particular set of legal institutional and substantial frames and limits for national democratic politics. Granted that the rule of law is an inherently contested concept, the author deconstructs the rule of political liberalism, reveals its weaknesses and ideological bias and proposes an alternative understanding of the rule of law. “The rule of pragmatism” is based on a pragmatic conceptualization of the law, and proscribes a regard for social context and consequences rather than abstract constructions and (good) intention. If applied by the EU institutions, the rule of pragmatism will secure greater legal and political pluralism in Europe and thus contributes to the mending of EU’s legitimacy deficit.