State Legitimacy Research Articles

The anti-Antigone: Pākehā settler masculinity, racialized kinship, and contested paternity in Carl Nixon’s Settlers’ Creek

ABSTRACT This article places Carl Nixon’s novel Settlers’ Creek (2010) alongside Sophocles’ Antigone as the springboard for an inquiry into the dynamic relationship between kinship bonds and state legitimacy in a settler-colonial context. Loosely based on a high-profile legal case in Aotearoa New Zealand regarding funerary practices, the novel highlights tensions between settler and indigenous constructions of law. Settlers’ Creek and Antigone share a central premise: rival claims for justice centred around the matter of an unburied corpse. However, where Antigone has been read in Continental philosophy to theorize the ascendance of the impersonal modern state and the deposition of kinship, Nixon’s novel can be read as an allegory of the reverse historical process through a (re)turn to filiative relationships in western nation states. By highlighting the Pākēhā protagonist’s failures to engage with bicultural kinship, the novel critiques a paternalistic colonial regime and undermines the affective grounding of settler cultural racism.

State legitimacy and Third World conflicts

Dealing with the post-World War II security issues, in this article I outline an approach that takes into account the context of the weak states in Third World environments. In this respect, first of all I make a case that domestic politics should be factored in the security concerns of states. Especially in the Third World context domestic political and social dissentions become key factors in defining foreign policy behavior of such states. Secondly, I highlight regional context, especially unstable regional conditions, regional hierarchies, and other factors that contribute to conflict propensities of states situated in the Third World environments. Finally, I make a case that, compared to democracy, legitimacy is a better variable to explain the link between domestic politics and foreign policy behavior of the Third World states. Legitimacy is not only value-neutral variable, but can also be applied across time and place.

Hero Commemoration and State Legitimation in Post-Communist Vietnam —A case study of martyr Võ Thị Sáu (1933-1952)—

This essay examined the public veneration of the heroic figure Võ Thị Sáu (1933–1952) and its relations to state legitimation in post-communist Vietnam. Through the case study of Sáu, the essay illuminated some characteristics of contemporary hero commemoration and the socio-political conditions that gave rise to these transformations. The goal was to demonstrate how communist fighters were reimagined into the embodiment of the revolutionary past and the moral high ground of the communists. These heroes became a medium for conflating national identity with state attachment, and for smoothing out post-communist ideological ruptures in state identity, hence making them valuable assets for the state in overcoming challenges against its leadership in the post-communist era.

The democratic legitimacy hierarchy. The scales to determine authorities's legitimacy in democratic states

The democratic legitimacy hierarchy. The scales to determine authorities's legitimacy in democratic states

«Поступил как Онегин с Татьяной»: молодой рабочий в пространстве советской культуры

The author considers the significance of the cultural space in the life of the young worker of one of the Molotov plants. The impressions of the Soviet worker are reflected in a personal diary. It noted important moments of his own life during the war. The diary has an obvious cultural context. The author slowly reads A.I. Dmitriev’s diary for the purpose of understanding the content of the cultural repertoire of the young Soviet worker, as well as the place and value of culture in the daily practices of the Soviet province. War did not mean the death of culture. Culture made it possible to compensate for the tragedy of the sur­rounding reality. In the Soviet rear there were various forms of Soviet culture. The example of the author of the diary confirms their great importance in shap­ing the personality of a young Soviet man. Study of the text of the ego-document by A.I. Dmitriev allows us to conclude that the cultural menu, pointing to which is present in the author's reflection, was in its majority a product of USSR totali­tarian propaganda, which, in turn, contributed to the legitimation of the Soviet state. Despite the propaganda effects, the cultural menu during the war could en­rich Soviet people with new knowledge. Classical texts made it possible to ex­pend a person’s understanding of world culture.

Communication and governance for cultural development: Issues and platforms

Many political scientists think governance promotes the growth of trust between the state and society and serves as the long-term basis for state legitimacy. Haider, Mcloughlin, and Scott (2011). Many African societies’ efforts to establish their cultures have been endangered by technology and civilisation. Despite this alarming and dire situation, communication is nevertheless believed to be a powerful force for spreading and transmitting culture, the center of human activity, and the advancement of society. This discourse examines the communication components for cultural development in Nigeria, focusing on platforms and concerns. The study is descriptive, predicated upon secondary sources, and anchored on the cultural imperialism thesis. The results show that communication can promote cultural development in Nigeria. The study suggests that to promote cultural development in Nigeria, some contact- and culturally-focused knotty issues be tackled by cultural communicators. It recommends using integrated media platforms for cultural campaigns to harness the nation’s comprehensive cultural development.

Falling Flat? The Impact of State Legitimacy, Capacity, and Political Trust on Flattening the Curve of COVID-19

As countries worldwide struggled to contain the COVID-19 pandemic in March and April of 2020, observers often remarked that countries with higher levels of regime legitimacy, state capacity, and political trust were more likely to curtail the spread of the virus. Remarkably, using quantitative data from 10 different sources, this article finds that this generalizable theory runs counter to expectations. Countries with higher levels of political legitimacy, trust, and capacity experienced greater increases in COVID cases during the onset of the pandemic, albeit the strength of these relationships is modest. To develop generalizable theories predicting virus containment, researchers should turn their attention to unique factors characterizing industrialized democracies that make a virus much harder to contain and expand their scope by using transdisciplinary approaches to understanding the pandemic

Estratégias de deslegitimação e policiamento online de manifestantes durante a pandemia na Polônia

ABSTRACT Introduction: This paper identifies delegitimization strategies that illustrate a range of attitudes of the Polish police towards individuals who resist the government and challenge the state legitimacy. Materials and Methods: The research is embedded in the theories of macro-strategies of delegitimization, out-casting micro-strategies, and is based on qualitative intertextual analysis of police statements in order to explain how the police responded to social opposition and shaped their relations with protesters during the pandemic periods. The study covers the following data: entries on official websites, statements to the public broadcaster TVP Info, and tweets released by the Polish Police Headquarters and the Warsaw Police Headquarters. Results: At the macro-strategy level, the research illuminates the online dimension of the protesters’ discipline process, as well as the policing of protests based on out-casting. These are the predominant resources of delegitimization of the cause. It is argued that its use was based on the categorization of protesters as violators of both law and social norms. In turn, the main micro-strategy applied within out-casting was criminalization formulated in reference to COVID-related law. Delegitimization strategies revealed the nature of moral justifications for negative attitudes towards protesters, as well as threats from and effective use of force. They also allowed the police to legitimize themselves in the public eye and to place their roles as protectors of human life, health, property, public security and order. Discussion: Unconditional acceptance and enforcement of the unconstitutional law established by the government revealed the political bias of the police. The delegitimization of the participants of the anti-government protests and the active and unquestionable acceptance of the pro-government demonstrations confirmed their political favoritism.

Political Realism and Epistemic Constraints

This article argues that Bernard Williams’ Critical Theory Principle (CTP) is in tension with his realist commitments, i.e., deriving political norms from practices that are inherent to political life. The Williamsian theory of legitimate state power is based on the central importance of the distinction between political rule and domination. Further, Williams supplements the normative force of his theory with the CTP, i.e., the principle that acceptance of a justification regarding power relations ought not to be created by the very same coercive power. I contend that the CTP is an epistemic criterion of reflective (un)acceptability which is not strictly connected to the question of whether people are dominated or not. I show that there are cases of non-domination that fail the epistemic requirements of the CTP.

Forty years of the African Charter and the reform issues facing the discourse and practice of human rights

During its four decades of existence, the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights has become the grand human rights instrument that inspired and informed the development of norms and institutions for the promotion and protection of human rights both at the national and continental levels. Despite the normative and jurisprudential contributions of the African Charter and the standard of legitimate state behaviour that it established, currently the Charter and the African human rights system face multifaceted challenges raising questions on the relevance and legitimacy of the African Charter-based human rights system. The central message of this article is that the future and continuing credibility of human rights depend on whether and how its existing and emerging flaws are addressed. Using the insights gleaned from the human rights issues that the COVID-19 pandemic laid bare, this contribution seeks to discuss the reform issues facing the discourse and practice of human rights, in general, and that of the African Charter-based system, in particular. To do so, the article draws on a conception of reform that the late Christof Heyns expounded two decades ago. Accordingly, the areas of reform that this contribution identifies relate to changes in the priorities of focus of the discourse and practice of human rights and the approaches to the promotion and protection of human rights.

On some theoretical issues of classification of payment systems

Problem setting. The author’s vision of ways to solve the problem of classification of payment systems in the new political and socio-economic conditions is presented in the article. The need to rethink the concept of “payment system” in connection with changes in current legislation of Ukraine, which in this context makes the category of “payment transactions” instead of “transfer of funds”, as before. It is emphasized that such an innovation expands the concept of “payment system” in a broader sense, which requires additional scientific research. Analysis of recent researches and publications. The question of the classification of payment systems has been repeatedly addressed by both domestic and foreign scientists and practical workers. For domestic science and practice, there is a need for critical understanding of existing views on the classification of payment systems, which is caused by the processes of adaptation of national legislation to the EU acquis in accordance with the provisions of the Association Agreement between Ukraine, on the one hand, and the European Union, the European Atomic Energy Community and their member states, on the other hand [9], in particular, in connection with the adoption of the Law of Ukraine “On Payment Services” dated June 30, 2021 № 1591-IX [10]. Such changes in the current legislation of Ukraine have not yet been properly reflected in publications on financial and legal topics and lead to further scientific searches in this area. Target of research is to update existing approaches to the classification of payment systems to improve the legal regulation of financial relations in new economic and socio-political conditions. Article’s main body. The understanding of the term “classification” is clarified, because in the practice of research in general theory of law and branch of legal sciences, it is often used without indicating its clear meaningful understanding or such a view may have significant differences. It is noted that although for legal science classification is a traditional and widely used method of scientific research, at the same time, there is a need for a clearer idea of such a means of scientific knowledge and overcoming terminological inconsistencies. Attention is drawn to the need to compare the concept of “classification” with such related categories as typology, systematization, modeling, clustering, cataloging, periodization, etc. Conclusions and prospects for the development. The view is maintained that to classify means to divide objects, phenomena or concepts into classes, groups, etc. according to common features, properties, criteria. It is emphasized that most of the criteria for the classification of payment systems are conditionally legal and reflect their respective organizational, functional or technical and technological features. In this context, the opinion is expressed that the legal criteria for classification should be considered only those that directly have the appropriate legal significance, determine the content in the areas of legal regulation of the organization and functioning of payment systems. It is proposed to distinguish between regulated and unregulated payment systems on such a legal basis as state legitimacy.

CPEC Opportunities and Challenges for Pakistan

CPEC is a massive project that aims to change the geoeconomic dynamics of Pakistani Chinese relations and increase trade between the two countries in the region. Pakistan and China have had a bilateral relationship since 1949, shortly after China gained independence. Pakistan was the first Muslim country outside of the Soviet Union to recognise China as a legitimate state and establish diplomatic ties with it. China China's Pakistan Economic Corridor is a meticulously planned initiative. China will gain a very quick route to the Arabian Sea through Pakistan's Gwadar Port as a result of this Corridor. The project's initial value was 46 billion dollars, but it has since increased to 62 billion dollars, making it an unquestionably fantastic project. Pakistan and China have proposed three corridors as part of the CPEC's core focus. CPEC is offering 27 special economic zones across the country as part of its development programmes. China plans to connect Kashgar in northwest China with Gwadar in the Arabian Sea near the Iranian border as part of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor. Gwadar, just outside the Gulf's mouth, would serve as a port for Middle Eastern oil that could then be transported to China through Baluchistan and the Karakorum Mountain.

“Family 500+” programme as a social investment aimed at increasing the number of births in Poland – an analysis of Internet forums discourse

The aim of the paper is to identify discourses related to the pro-natalist goal of the “Family 500 plus” programme, which is the largest family cash benefit scheme ever introduced in Poland. The paper presents an analysis of the conventional discourse based on Internet forums devoted to this programme. The analysis of 47 forums and over 3,000 posts shared between November 2015 and June 2019 allowed the author to distinguish fourteen dominant conventional discourses which were classified into three groups labelled as follows: (1) discourses of the state’s/individuals’ responsibility (2) discourses concerning policy making (3) discourses of (in)efficiency and (in)effectiveness. The research also indicates the leading role of the social perception of parents-beneficiaries in the debate on the “Family 500+” programme. The key to gaining social support, and, more broadly, for the legitimation of the welfare state in Poland, seems to care for a positive image of parents eligible for the benefit. The paper reveals complexity and interdependence of arguments concerning chances of the programme in terms of supporting increases in fertility in Poland. To the best of the author’s knowledge, this paper is the first attempt to analyse online forums in terms of social policy instruments.

When anti-corruption agencies delegitimize the state: the cases of Nepal and Guatemala

State-led anti-corruption agencies are often posited for their state-legitimizing effects. This article argues that anti-corruption agencies (ACAs) can have adverse legitimacy effects on the state and its institutions. Based on an extensive review of the literature, this article first defines twelve ACA ideal types that reflect their corruption-reduction potential. It then illustrates the negative effects of ACAs on state legitimacy through two case studies, Nepal and Guatemala. The findings show that ACAs can have a negative impact on state legitimacy if they increase public awareness and condemnation of corruption in state institutions or if governments interfere with effective investigations from the ACA. Taken together, these findings highlight that anti-corruption policies and reforms need to account for and adapt to potentially delegitimating effects on state institutions.

Service Delivery, State Legitimacy and Conflict in Arab Countries: Exploring the Key Linkages Using a Social Policy Perspective

This paper addresses the question of how service delivery (SD) affects state legitimacy (SL) and conflict (C) in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, drawing particularly on frameworks that move beyond a state-centric approach. Focusing on the majority-Arab countries of MENA, the paper aims to: (1) offer a preliminary explanation of the distinctiveness of this region in light of some of the main findings of the introductory paper by the lead guest editor Timo Kivimäki and (2) explore the potential of a social policy perspective in explaining the relationship between SD, SL and C. This is achieved by combining research insights acquired through extensive qualitative social policy research in the MENA region with a re-reading of the existing literature on SD, SL and C. To support a comprehensive re-examination of the issues at hand, the paper also draws on the 5th Wave of the Arab Barometer micro-level survey (ABS) on Arab citizen perceptions of socio-economic conditions in their countries and macro-level social welfare expenditure data from the World Bank World Development Indicators (WDI). By bringing insights from the social policy literature on the MENA region into conversation with broader research on the relationship between SD, SL and C, we identify several distinctive features of service delivery in the MENA context and examine their implications for state legitimacy and conflict.

The Waltz's Third Level of Analysis and China's Pursuit of Legitimacy Via the AIIB

Since 2016, the Asian Infrastructure and Investment Bank (AIIB) has assisted countries in improving their economic conditions with infrastructure and transport projects. Publicly proposed in 2013 by China's President, Xi Jinping, during his state visit to Indonesia, the AIIB has helped consolidate China's legitimacy as a leading power in Asia and globally. Thus, this paper argues that forming the AIIB was a move to counter the relatively low vote share in the neoliberal's international financial institutions, namely the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the Japan-led Asian Development Bank (ADB). With the added benefit of leading a development institution, more legitimacy is gained via the international system. Since its establishment, AIIB had significantly increased from 57 founding members in 2016 to 103 in 2020. In examining how this translates into China gaining legitimacy from the international system, this paper examined the case of China's AIIB through the Third Level of Analysis in Kenneth Waltz's Neorealism. In his The State, And War, Waltz argued for the "Levels of Analysis" and convinced the third level analyses a state's legitimacy and goals via the international system's responses and interactions. This paper examined the relationship between China's standing in the eyes of the world and the acceptance of AIIB as a legitimate development institution.

A theory of social programs, legitimacy, and citizen cooperation with the state

Aid and social programs are commonly used to fight insurgencies. However, sometimes they fail to achieve their goal of increasing citizen cooperation with the state. I propose a series of game-theoretic models that focus on the strategic interaction between a state and a citizen in the face of a challenge to the state’s monopoly of power by an insurgency. I argue that even if the provision of aid or social programs increases citizens’ intrinsic motivation to cooperate with the state, it does not necessarily translate into more cooperation. I show that citizen cooperation depends on whether the increase in the provision of aid is accompanied by an increase in the use of violent or hard tools by the state, the citizens’ expectation of future rewards, and the insurgency’s response. The models thus provide a rationale for why even if social programs increase state legitimacy, they may fail to increase citizen cooperation.

ESSENTIAL FEATURES AND FUNCTIONAL COMPONENTS OF MODERN UNCONVENTIONAL (HYBRID) CONFLICT

In the article the authors argue that the strategy and arsenal of hybrid (asymmetrical, unconventional) warfare in the contemporary world are fundamentally based on the qualitative changes that took place at the turn of the XXI century as a result of radical changes in the balance of power in the international arena, chaos in international relations, the development of new types of lethal and non-lethal weapons, new technologies of constructing and dismantling social communities with predetermined characteristics. These changes involved the conceptual framework, structure, strategy and tactics, forms and methods of the military and political confrontation between modern states and their blocks, as well as between states and non-governmental organisations.
 The authors identify the essential features and functional components of hybrid warfare, such as its latency phases; the remote undermining of national defense capabilities by non-military and non-contact means; breaching the international law of war; the integrated use of military methods as well as specific means of non-military, diplomatic, financial and economic, humanitarian pressure on a victim state. They also include the extensive use of anti-government groups and movements; illegal armed groups, separatists, irredentists, radical ethnic and religious groups, extremist organizations, and artificially constructed destructive groups; the privileged role of intelligence services, special operations forces and their use for engineering a powerful anti-government infrastructure designed to destabilize the legitimate state system; the priority role of targeted influence on public opinion through the extensive use of methods of information and psychological warfare and cyberwarfare.

Dill, Elizabeth. Erotic Citizens: Sex and the Embodied Subject in the Antebellum Novel.

Dill, Elizabeth. <i>Erotic Citizens: Sex and the Embodied Subject in the Antebellum Novel</i>.

State Bastardisation And Terrorism In Nigeria: A Discourse

Abstract This paper seeks to unearth and analyse the variables which promote and sustain primordial groups’ identities and their linkages to the emergence and sustenance of terrorist groups in Nigeria. Grounded in the pluralist theory of sovereignty, the study adopts historical research design. It relies solely on data from secondary sources, which are presented qualitatively, and the finding is analysed using content analysis techniques. The study reveals that the promotion of primordial identities above national identity for political advantage by the political elites leads to state bastardisation in Nigeria. Besides, it identifies the apostolical promotion of some neoliberal values without corresponding citizenship education, as responsible for the emergence of Boko Haram and other such groups that challenge the sovereignty and legitimacy of the Nigerian state. It also questions the continuous promotion of religion in the public domain in a secular state and concludes that genuine integration policy is an urgent imperative. The study recommends that ethno-religious politics be buried; religion should be returned to the private lives of the citizenry. Besides, citizenship education and societal development should be prioritised in order to strengthen the state, and weaken the capacity of primordial groups to challenge the Nigerian State with violent outbursts.