Question Of Legitimacy Research Articles

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).

Negotiating censorial power and its legitimacy: a case study of the second face of state censorship

ABSTRACT This article proposes the ‘second face of censorship’, emphasizing how states use censorial institutions to reinforce their value system and moral authority. It argues that censorship involves an interactive power dynamic between state censors and society, posing the question of legitimacy in censorial power dynamics, which is crucial for authoritarian resilience. To investigate this interactive process and the possibility of legitimacy, this article conducted a case study of public reactions to the takedown of a drama series in China. It examines how public sentiment and state responses intertwined in censorial practice, revealing the construction of descriptive legitimacy through negotiation.

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.

Transfer of probationers under EU law: Rehabilitation and the question of legitimacy in the Netherlands

This article analyses the thorniest issues raised by the implementation in the Netherlands of Framework Decision 2008/947/JHA, often referred to as ‘European Probation Order’. It delves into Dutch law and practice regarding mutual recognition of probation measures and alternative sanctions and analyses how the Netherlands deals with principled questions with respect to the legitimacy of the transfer of probationers, both as a mechanism in itself and with respect to the ultimate goal of promoting social rehabilitation. The analysis focuses on (i) the basic tenets of the Dutch implementation (goals, competent authorities and application in Dutch legal practice); (ii) challenging issues regarding the types of probation measures and alternative sanctions eligible for recognition and the implementation of refusal grounds and (iii) how procedural rights and informed consent of the sentenced person are dealt with in relation to social rehabilitation.

Settler Colonialism and Decolonization

Abstract This essay makes two arguments. First, it argues that the analytical frame of settler colonialism is very productive in order to understand, describe, and at times even predict certain future trends of the Israeli state and society, while putting aside questions of legitimation or justification. On the other hand, this analytical frame is underdetermined when it comes to offering possible solutions for the future of Palestine-Israel. From the mere fact that Israel is a settler colonial project no particular future normative solution could be deduced logically. Future situations are political, not logical, and as such they are subject to different kinds of considerations including ethical and practical ones. Furthermore, we bear certain responsibility for political decisions that we do not while making logical judgments, and this different must be kept.

Towards a taxonomy of English-language news podcasting in India

News podcasting has emerged as an active domain of academic research in recent years, and yet several regions like India remain understudied in terms of empirical knowledge about the content of news podcasts. This research article partially fills this gap by introducing a taxonomy of Indian news podcasts. Using the Newman & Gallo framework (2019) for analysis, this study looks at a data set of 6462 English-language news podcast episodes from India and lays out a taxonomic classification. This taxonomic classification illustrates the diversity in frequency, formats, and beats found in English-language news podcasts from India. In line with the global trends, the deep dive formats and interviews are featured prominently on Indian podcasts too. In a seemingly counterintuitive way, though, the Indian legacy news organizations emerge to be far more active in podcasting compared to their digital-only counterparts. The findings are discussed in light of questions of journalistic legitimacy, credibility, organizational branding, and India-specific factors like the tremendous audience diversity. The research attempts a region-specific epistemological engagement with the domain of news podcasting and makes a significant contribution by presenting a tool and a provocation for further research following this inquiry.

Empirical Research: Influence of domestic constituencies in the implementation of international tax standards and legitimacy of global tax governance

The intensification of global governance activities in the area of international taxation has raised the question of the democratic legitimacy of the process since decisions in multilateral institutions are typically made by members of the executive alone and predominantly those from developed countries. There are opportunities to influence discussions at the global level for non-state actors, but the capacity to do so is unequally distributed. Yet, the results of global standard-setting processes need to be implemented domestically which affords opportunities for a wider range of constituencies to influence the outcome, among them elected parliamentarians, businesses, and local civil society. On the one hand, this two-stage process mitigates the lack of inclusiveness in global governance; on the other hand, it may jeopardize the effectiveness of global standards in achieving harmonization. In practice, opportunities for stakeholders to influence the implementation process and the interest to actually do so vary across countries. The purpose of this article is to chart this variation and discuss what it means for the global governance process. This is sourced from interviews on the implementation of the BEPS project’s standards with different tax policy stakeholders in Australia, Colombia, India, Mexico, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Senegal and Spain. With this data it is identified which non-governmental constituencies exist in each country, what are their interest vis-à-vis different elements of the BEPS Project, and what means they have at their disposal to influence the implementation process. The findings indicate variation across countries regarding the direction in which governmental and non-governmental stakeholders try to influence the outcomes as well as regarding their opportunities to effectively influence implementation processes. This entails that the level of implication of stakeholders will be context-dependent and so will be the answer to the question on whether the participation in the implementation process can ‘compensate’ for a lack of participation in standard setting processes. Global tax governance, democratic legitimacy, international taxation, domestic implementation, stakeholder inclusiveness, expert interviews

The Impact of the Rule of Law on Energy Policy in European Union Member States

Research pertaining to the dual-tier political system within the European Union (EU), specifically concerning the genesis and execution of EU policies, has garnered substantial scholarly attention. These inquiries delve into multifaceted dimensions, encompassing institutional dynamics, procedural intricacies, questions of legitimacy, and intricate relational dynamics entailing international diplomacy with other actors within the realm of international law. Nonetheless, a particularly intriguing and underexplored facet remains: the influence of member states’ compliance with the rule of law on the implementation of EU policies, particularly within the realm of energy policy. This article aims to elucidate the nexus between the realization of energy policy objectives in EU member states and fidelity to the rule of law. The conundrum of establishing a correlation between the indicators of environmentally sustainable energy policy and commitment to upholding the rule of law remains uncharted territory within the existing body of literature. Our analysis centers on a dataset derived from publicly accessible sources, reflecting data from the year 2020.

Анализ процедур конфискации частной собственности в России и США

Mass media has lately started an active discussion about confiscation of property of Russia, Russian legal entities, individuals and affiliated persons in the USA. At the same time, there are no such cases with regards to any American contractors in Russia. In such a situation, a person with well-developed legal consciousness poses the question of legitimacy of such actions of the U.S. government, the legal aspect of the matter. To answer this question, it makes sense to study respective U.S. regulations, determine the specifics of this phenomena as compared to the Russian law and order for the purposes of clear differentiation of this procedure in the two countries that differ in terms of history and the legal family. The article reviews the property confiscation issue from the constitutional regulation standpoint, compares approaches of Russian and American legislators with regards to the property confiscation grounds, procedure and consequences before and after the start of the active use of the sanctions pressure mechanism. The author concludes that there is an obvious abuse of power by the U.S. legislator in terms of the regulation of this institution as compared to the Russian Federation.

The Anglophone Crisis and Low Voter Turnout in Anglophone Cameroon in the 2018 Presidential Elections

The international political system has radically changed in the last three decade. During this era the global political system has witnessed the enfranchisement of more voters across geographical, racial and socio-economic boundaries than ever before. With the growing trend of democracy, voter turnouts keep fluctuating. Since the return of multiparty elections in 1990, Cameroon has been experiencing a downward trend in voter turnout. With voter apathy being on the rise in Cameroon, the 2018 Presidential elections were no different nationally, but it was more glaring in the Anglophone regions with extremely low turnout. The presidential elections coincided with the onset of the Cameroonian civil war in Anglophone Cameroon, with separatist fighters and the Cameroon government forces fighting over the self-determination and political future of Anglophone Cameroon. This study sought to ascertain the link between the Anglophone crisis and the low voter turnout in the Anglophone regions. The study relied on both primary and secondary data sources. Primary data sources will mainly be gotten through telephone interviews and personal observations. Secondary data from books, journal article, newspapers, reports and possible interviews on election issues in Cameroon. Findings show that the Anglophone crisis and separatist threats played a role in low voter turnout, alongside voting age and voter disillusionment. The low voter turnout in the Anglophone regions creates a question of legitimacy of those elections and it is recommended that a resolution of the conflict would help improve the situation of voter apathy in Anglophone Cameroon ahead of the upcoming 2025 Presidential and 2026 Municipal and parliamentary Elections.