Question Of Legitimacy Research Articles

Fonder From Afar: Distance, Leadership, and the Legitimacy of the EU

Why do people support political leadership? This age-old question is increasingly relevant in international politics and especially for the EU, which is seen as suffering from a legitimacy deficit. In EU studies, the question of legitimacy has been approached predominantly from an institutional perspective. However, in times of increased mediatisation and personalisation of politics, leaders play an increasingly important role in determining the legitimacy of politics in the eyes of the people, especially in “distant” polities like the EU. Following these insights from leadership studies, this article examines to what extent citizens’ trust in the EU is influenced by their assessment of different types of EU leaders, as well as distance. A unique survey of citizens’ assessments of EU leaders on five dimensions—being democratically elected, credibility, ideology, social identification, and emotions—is used to answer this question. The study unexpectedly finds that the more distant the leader, the more positive people’s evaluation of their EU leadership. Moreover, the assessment of these leaders significantly and strongly correlates with the extent to which citizens trust the EU. This finding holds for all three categories of EU leaders but is strongest for the most distant leaders. No support, however, is found for the expectation that, in the case of increased distance between leaders and followers, the psychological aspects of legitimacy dominate over the more utilitarian considerations underlying people’s trust in the EU.

Cultivating trans linguistics: Creativity and contestation

This special issue on trans linguistics forefronts both resistance and creativity in responding to transphobia and other interlocking power dynamics that trans people must navigate. These practices exist in the context of growing hostilities, violence and repression of gender non-normative practices on a global scale. The articles highlight the unique configurations of communication born out of trans experiences, illustrating how their study can produce novel insights for the study of language. Together, the authors featured here expand the emerging field of trans linguistics, considering questions of legitimacy, visibility, agency and power by examining trans vocal, grammatical and discursive practices within their sociopolitical contexts. We come to this work as trans people and linguists who have been deeply involved in advancing trans-affirming linguistic change, but who see much room for growth in the ways our discipline serves, represents and accompanies trans people.

Digital Regulation and Questions of Legitimacy

ABSTRACTGovernments across the world have introduced or are considering new digital regulation to address a range of policy issues, from long‐standing concerns about illegal and harmful content online to more recent debates about the risks and benefits of generative AI. As new regimes of digital regulation take shape, questions about their legitimacy are likely to become ever more central. Focusing on the model of independent regulation favoured in liberal democracies, this article notes that the general problems of legitimacy regulators faces may be aggravated in the case of digital regulation, since the factors believed to make regulation effective (technical expertise, agility, adaptability and collaborative relations with industry) widen the gap between regulators and democratic publics and increase the likelihood of ‘capture’ by powerful stakeholders and ideologies. Rejecting both technocratic and populist‐decisionist responses to these legitimation problems, the article draws instead on work that rethinks regulation along more deliberative democratic lines. To improve the legitimacy of digital regulation, the focus should be on increasing the quality of justification between regulators and their publics, ensuring not just that those involved in regulation justify their decisions to those they affect and are supposed to serve, but that members of the public are empowered to reflect on, test and contribute to shaping these justifications.

Border-Crossing and “Temporal Otherness” in the Greater Region SaarLorLux: Residential Migrants’ Experiences of Divergence

This article deals with border-crossing and the experiences of “temporal otherness” of residential migrants who move their home from Luxembourg to the German side of the River Moselle. Research on temporal borders is highly influenced by a particular spatio-political relation: the West creating its underdeveloped other and coping with this other by controlling border-crossing, which in turn results in maintaining the idea of the other’s temporal remoteness. The Luxembourgish–German border region offers a complement to this perspective; here, one encounters migrants who move in the opposite temporal direction and appreciate certain forms of “being behind” in their new place of residence. These migrants must cope with divergences, i.e., with the fact that economic and socio-cultural conditions within their new socio-spatial universe, the cross-border region, have evolved differently. This article argues that the analysis of migrants’ memories is illuminating with respect to the question of the moral legitimacy of moving, and thus regarding the conception and everyday construction of cross-border communities. It sheds light on the fact that borderland research—by focusing on national differences and related conceptions of cross-border mobility and exchange—tends to ignore borderlanders’ notions of (regional) unity and related claims for convergence. Keywords: cross-border residential mobility; divergence and convergence; temporal otherness; moral economy of belonging.

THE REPRESENTATION OF BANLIEUES IN CONTEMPORARY FRENCH LITERATURE: A NEW FORM OF ENGAGED REALISM?

This article aims to address the following questions: What form does the representation of the banlieues imaginary take in contemporary French literature, and what position does it occupy within the literary field? Can we speak of a new form of mimesis of reality? To explore these questions, three works have been selected from contemporary French literature that represent this imaginary, each written by a different author: Lydie Salvayre’s Les belles Âmes (2000), Olivier Adam’s Les Lisières (2012) and Mahir Guven’s Grand frère (2017). This selection allows for a sufficiently diverse range of works and author profiles, offering relevant insights. The article will begin by analyzing the media portrayal of the banlieues in France and the collective imaginary constructed around this space. It will then analyze how contemporary novels, including those in our corpus, reconnect fictional narrative with social reality by attempting to "heal" from the antinarrativism of modernity. It will also address the concept of engaged realism present in the three novels, focusing on the question of legitimacy in writing about, for, and on behalf of the banlieues. A final section will be dedicated to the techniques of realism in the corpus, through an analysis of these narrative techniques in the three novels. The conclusion will summarize our research and present observations regarding the answer to the question of the presence of a new peri-urban realism in contemporary French literature.

In Pursuit of Greater Accountability for Torture: The Case of Giulio Regeni after Judgment no. 192/2023 of the Italian Constitutional Court

Abstract This article examines the Italian Constitutional Court’s Judgment No. 192/2023 on a question of constitutional legitimacy raised in the course of the criminal trial against four Egyptian nationals for the murder and torture of Italian doctoral researcher Giulio Regeni in Egypt in 2016. By declaring the partial unconstitutionality of the Italian legislation on in absentia proceedings, the Court’s decision allowed the trial to proceed even in the defendants’ absence. The judgment is assessed against a backdrop of institutional inertia in securing justice for Regeni. The article first analyses the significance of the Court’s decision, highlighting its implications for international human rights law and, in particular, the duty to exercise criminal jurisdiction over acts of torture under the UN Convention Against Torture. It then critiques the emphasis placed on criminal accountability, as illustrated by Regeni’s case. It argues that such emphasis, combined with the inadequacy of other State responses, risks diluting the right to truth and accountability in its broader sense.

Political legitimacy after the pits: Corruption narratives and labour power in a former coalmining town in England.

This article examines the erosion of political legitimacy in ex-mining towns in England. Political sociologists and political scientists have long taken an interest in the politics of coalmining areas, which were characterised by high strike rates and militant left values. More recently, the question of legitimacy in these areas has resurfaced, as now-deindustrialised pit towns register unusually high levels of political discontent and disengagement compared to areas with similar economic and demographic profiles. In interviews and group discussions with 93 residents of the former mining town of Mansfield, England, I find that many express ideas that profoundly challenge the system of representative democracy in its current form, with almost one in three participants understanding politics primarily through the frame of corruption. Drawing on an emergent literature which casts corruption talk as a moralised discourse of political in/exclusion, I argue that the corruption frame is best understood as the inversion of a now-defunct symbolic economy. As workers in pit towns no longer received the same tokens of care from their representatives, reflecting their reduced power, many came to understand the political system as corrupt and illegitimate.

Director’s Fiduciary Duties and the future Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive in the Wake of English Case Law

Climate litigation is on the rise and may raise legitimate questions. As the same issues apply in France and the United Kingdom, a highly instructive English decision provides an opportunity to present the state of play and possible improvements to French law during this period of European normative effervescence marked by constant changes, particularly for stakeholders. In such a context, a French-style Business Judgment Rule would be welcome, with commendable signals recently emerging from the OECD Guidelines on Responsible Conduct for Multinational Enterprise; in such a context, NGO shareholders can play a valuable role as “Big Sisters” if they act in the interests of society as a whole, for the benefit of all its members.

Contemporary Tibetan Monastic Business and the Corporate Form

In early twenty-first century Tibet, many Geluk monasteries established capital funds that they invested in small businesses—the Geluk being one of the main Tibetan Buddhist traditions. Drawing on fieldwork in northeast Tibet, this article examines debates surrounding this monastic engagement in business, asking why it proved contentious despite historical and canonical precedent. I approach this question by thinking about monastic business engagement in relation to Geluk monasticism as a distinctive corporate form. Foregrounding how monks made sense of what they were doing as corporate actors, I examine common rationales, concerns, and questions of legitimacy at the heart of arguments both for and against monastic business development, and how these related to the monastic corporation’s core concern with preservation and continuity. The article concludes with some broader reflections on what these debates can tell us about the ongoing process of corporation-making, suggesting some possible avenues for future research.

Translating Law and Code in Government: Algorithmic Decisions and Their Legal Effects in Canada

This article analyzes the translation of law into computer code and the use of automated decision-making systems in government to make legal distinctions. Specifically, how are algorithmic decisions tied to law, and what happens when legal effects are mediated through technologies? The sociology of translation and Bruno Latour's theory of law, as elaborated by Kyle McGee, provides the means to study associations between law and technology. I trace how the force of law can be extended when mediated through computer systems and analyze the associations of law and technology in Canada's government, through projects exemplifying the shift to “code-driven law.” These include the translation of “rules-as-code,” and several of the sociotechnical systems governing Canada's borders, demonstrating how design choices in government digital services inevitably shape the outcomes of public policy and can have legal effects. While Latour's legal scholarship avoided traditional questions of legitimacy, a key consideration for automated government systems is how legitimacy is constructed and contested. For rules-as-code, legitimate algorithmic outcomes should be traceable to law, but existing government systems commonly maintain legitimacy by identifying a human actor “in-the-loop” as the ultimate decision-maker, thereby obscuring how thoroughly imbricated human and algorithmic agency are in contemporary governance.

The Lessons of Propaganda: The Role of the Film Kalushi in (Re)Writing the Legacy of Solomon Mahlangu

ABSTRACT This article focuses on one particularly striking example of the opportunities and dangers of using propaganda to narrate the armed struggle against apartheid: the feature film Kalushi, which dramatically depicts the life and death of the young Umkhonto we Sizwe soldier Solomon Kalushi Mahlangu. If Thabo Rametsi, acting as the protagonist, insists that Kalushi ought to be understood as a piece of propaganda, we should take him at his word. It is enough that he says so. Therefore, the question is simply: is the film effective? I have chosen to utilise short (anonymised) quotations from a dozen student essays as a ‘source’ for analysing the film. Written in fulfilment of the requirements for an introductory course on African History, these student essays are useful precisely because they are not written by experts. That is, when responding to Kalushi, the students are reacting to its storytelling, soundtrack, costumes, and so on – all of the basic tools for presenting propaganda through cinema. Analysing these essays in conjunction with scholarly books and articles on Mahlangu, this article engages Rametsi’s notions of positive propaganda as a provocation, raising a series of legitimate questions.

Rejoinder to Book Review of "Rural Transformations and Rural Crime"

A review of a book we edited, Rural Transformations and Rural Crime (Bowden & Harkness, 2022) was published in Volume 32, Issue 3 of Rural Society (Scott, 2023) in December 2023. The review makes two key but highly misleading charges. The first is an intimation that rural criminology is dominated by a clique of scholars; and second that the book by and large lacks critical analysis to the reviewer’s liking. The reviewer provides a glimpse of a broad analysis of the field and adopts an independently minded position. Indeed, some observations and claims are made that should rightly be part of a wider debate in criminology, about the book’s relevance, and its impact and contribution to the social sciences: legitimate and important questions that ought to be addressed. However, a few errors in the review need to be corrected and cannot go unchallenged.

The relationship between political legitimacy and economic legitimacy: empirical explorations of a novel research approach on legitimacy

The paper outlines key points of a novel research approach to empirically investigate the question of legitimacy in modern societies. This new research approach utilizes a functionalist perspective to expand the concept of legitimacy. Accordingly, the conceptual framework discusses how legitimacy can be employed in different domains of society. In particular, it proposes to conceptualize both the legitimacy of the political system (political legitimacy) as well as the legitimacy of the economic system (economic legitimacy). The main objectives of the study are to (1) develop conceptualizations that are empirically plausible for the two types of legitimacies; (2) to empirically verify the operationalization; and (3) to assess empirically the relationship between these two types of legitimacies and identify interdependencies between them. The paper employs a macro-level research design to understand the relationship between political and economic legitimacy, where the main units of analysis are countries. The study compiles a new country-level dataset of indicators for political and economic legitimacy based on a large selection of secondary cross-national data sources. It employs then structural equation modeling to established empirical measurement models for political and economic legitimacy. Moreover, the relationship of political and economic legitimacy is explored with a cross-lagged panel model. The paper establishes that political and economic legitimacy are two distinct concepts empirically. Furthermore, the empirical results indicate that political legitimacy has a negative influence on economic legitimacy, whereas economic legitimacy does not effect political legitimacy. Overall, the paper shows the viability of this new research approach and potential pitfalls for future research. The empirical evidence should be interpreted with caution due to low data quality, nonetheless the paper contributes to taking a step closer toward understanding how governments can ensure stable societies.

Young people as a political subject in the context of environmental governance

The discourse on environmental challenges has evolved significantly in recent years, with climate change emerging as a central global concern. This transformation has been heavily influenced by the last wave of youth-led social movements, notably the Fridays for Future movement, who have mobilized young people at a global scale contributing at a shift in public discourse on the topic of climate action. However, despite the impact of the newly emerged youth-led movements it is still rather unclear if and where has youth gained recognition as a group with special interests within environmental policy and governance. In this study we report on a research were we investigated the positioning of youth in contemporary environmental governance, and propose a theoretical perspective to understand how the subject category of “youth” is constructed in public discourse and its implications for political recognition. We study the progressive emergence of Greta Thunberg as a voice for a generation of youth climate activists and undertake a document analysis of selected material generated in relation to selected international political events. By addressing questions of recognition, discourse structure, and legitimacy, this research aims to shed light on the nuanced dynamics shaping the role of youth in environmental policy and governance.

How to make conspiracy theory research intellectually respectable (and what it might be like if it were)

ABSTRACT A great deal of conspiracy theory research presupposes a falsehood – that conspiracy theories as such are irrational to believe – and that conspiracy theorists as such suffer from a range of cognitive defects. But since people frequently conspire, many people believe in a wide range of conspiracy theories because they themselves are historically and politically literate. Thus, research questions like ‘Why Do People Believe in Conspiracy Theories?’ (with the presupposition that there is something wrong with them if they do) are misconceived, since people believe in conspiracy theories (like many other theories) for a wide range of reasons, some good and some bad. But there are legitimate research questions here such as ‘Why do so many people believe in irrational conspiracy theories?’ But you can’t answer such questions systematically without a robust set of criteria for determining which kinds of conspiracy theories are irrational to believe and which are not. Furthermore, you need to keep the whole question in mind in conducting your research. If this were done, then it might very well turn out that people believe in irrational conspiracy theories for much the same reasons that they believe in irrational theories of other kinds (for example, religious theories).

Myths of Zimbabwean urban nationalism: Narratives of modernity and exceptionalism in the economic crisis

AbstractZimbabwe has distinct urban nationalist myths stemming from the colonial period—urban modernity and economic exceptionalism. The modernity myth has been constructed from the colonial period and came to be associated with urban order, lifestyle and social mobility. The economic exceptionalism myth refers to Zimbabwe's past exceptional economic performance during the colonial and early postcolonial periods. However, the economic crisis and informalisation from the late 1990s have challenged these myths as neither previous practices of urban modernity nor the feeling of exceptional economic performance is attainable any more. In this context, people in the informal sector reimagine what these nationalist myths mean to them. In particular, they engage in debates about which economic practices are modern enough to be implemented in urban areas, especially in the city centre, and how to identify themselves make a claim to urban modernity. The memory of economic exceptionalism in the meantime acts as a reference point in discussions about future national development. All these translate into the question of legitimacy—of the informal economy and its practices and the government that failed to uphold the modernity and exceptionalism myths.

Provisions for nullification of conservation and management measures in RFMO objection procedures

In order to successfully exercise their mandate to adopt binding conservation and management measures (CMMs) for straddling and highly migratory fish stocks, regional fisheries management organizations (RFMOs) and arrangements (RFMAs) need effective decision-making procedures. The constitutive instruments of a considerable number of such bodies contain objection procedures which allow individual members to unilaterally opt-out of an adopted CMM. Most scholars and RFMO performance review panels consider that unconstrained unilateral objection procedures undermine the decision-making procedures of both RFMOs and RFMAs. This article examines the phenomenon of CMM nullification provisions, which are present in five RFMOs. Such provisions deprive adopted CMMs of their binding force for all members if a certain number of members of the RFMO object to the CMM. This article argues that there is a case for a phase-out of CMM nullification provisions together with the unilateral objection procedures to which they are closely tied. Compared to unilateral objections more generally, CMM nullification provisions raise additional legitimacy questions given that they result in the nullification of CMMs that have been democratically adopted in conformity with the legitimate decision-making procedures of the respective RFMO. This article first provides a brief overview of the rationale for objection procedures by placing the concept of objections in the broader context of RFMO decision-making. Thereafter, this article briefly examines the requirements and legal effects of individual objections of RFMO members to CMMs. The final substantive section analyzes and compares existing CMM nullification provisions, focusing on the requirements for their activation, the nature of their legal effects and the legitimacy of such procedures considering the broader decision-making procedures of individual RFMOs.

Experts and Amateurs in Times of Transition: From Decolonising to the Re-Colonisation of Science

This article interprets recent changes in the structure of the scientific field, focusing on the legitimacy of expertise and the division between lay and expert knowledge. It compares aspects of the scientific transition, the professionalisation of the scientific field in Victorian England to developments of the past few decades. Nineteenth-century transformations resulted in the restructuring and decolonisation of the scientific field: clearer internal and external boundaries and relative autonomy. Today, we witness the blurring of these demarcations and the deconstruction of earlier constructs. The conceptual framework of my analysis is that introduced by Harry Collins and his colleagues as the Studies of Expertise and Experience. The article first provides an overview of the most important concepts, altering some emphases to fit the purposes of the present subject. By examining the question of legitimacy and status of expert knowledge under different periods and circumstances, the article points out both similarities and important differences between the two eras of transition. Finally, the paper discusses the recolonisation of the scientific field observed in twenty-first-century autocracies and concludes that the conceptual framework of the third wave of science studies needs to be adjusted to give an entirely satisfying interpretation of this novel development.

Comic Queens: Sofía and Letizia in Spain’s Graphic Satire

With its members subject to a series of scandals, questions of legitimacy and the desirability of retaining the Spanish monarchy have repeatedly resurfaced. Leading the charge are the country’s graphic humourists, whose confrontational attacks have been met with draconian legal retaliation under the auspices of lèse-majesté. While derision is typically directed towards Juan Carlos I and Felipe VI, what of their consorts—Emerita Sofía and Letizia Ortiz—legitimized by marriage alone? This article explores how Spain’s cartoonists have used its Queen consorts as ludic sites from which to question the value of monarchy in a country marked by enduring crisis.

Inclusion as a science, technology, and innovation policy objective in high-income countries: the decoupling dilemma

Abstract This paper scrutinizes the objective of inclusion in contemporary science, technology, and innovation (STI) policies by analyzing its manifestations within the broad STI policy language promoting a closer interaction between science and society. We contribute to the STI policy literature by revisiting current conceptualizations that primarily center on marginalized groups. By analyzing the Broader Impacts Criterion and Responsible Research and Innovation frameworks in the USA and the European Union, we show that inclusion in the context of high-income countries is partially decoupling from marginalization and increasingly being instrumentalized to serve impact agendas. Our conceptual framework synthesizing the dimensions of goal setting and agency illustrates the broadening scope of inclusive policies and the emergent decoupling dilemma that has been neglected in the literature. Future research must account for the growing ambiguity of policy language that is facing new legitimacy questions and the blurring of objectives focused on supporting marginalized groups.