In Search Of Legitimacy

Every year, countless young adults from affluent, Western nations travel to Brazil to train in capoeira, the dance/martial art form that is one of the most visible strands of the Afro-Brazilian cultural tradition. In Search of Legitimacy explores why “first world” men and women leave behind their jobs, families, and friends to pursue a strenuous training regimen in a historically disparaged and marginalized practice. Using the concept of apprenticeship pilgrimage—studying with a local master at a historical point of origin—the author examines how non-Brazilian capoeiristas learn their art and claim legitimacy while navigating the complexities of wealth disparity, racial discrimination, and cultural appropriation.

At an unsettled time for liberal democracy, with global eruptions of authoritarian and arbitrary rule, here is one of the first full-fledged philosophical accounts of what makes governments legitimate. What makes a government legitimate? The dominant view is that public officials have the right to rule us, even if they are unfair or unfit, as long as they gain power through procedures traceable to the consent of the governed. In this rigorous and timely study, Arthur Isak Applbaum argues that adherence to procedure is not enough: even a properly chosen government does not rule legitimately if it fails to protect basic rights, to treat its citizens as political equals, or to act coherently. How are we to reconcile every person’s entitlement to freedom with the necessity of coercive law? Applbaum’s answer is that a government legitimately governs its citizens only if the government is a free group agent constituted by free citizens. To be a such a group agent, a government must uphold three principles. The liberty principle, requiring that the basic rights of citizens be secured, is necessary to protect against inhumanity, a tyranny in practice. The equality principle, requiring that citizens have equal say in selecting who governs, is necessary to protect against despotism, a tyranny in title. The agency principle, requiring that a government’s actions reflect its decisions and its decisions reflect its reasons, is necessary to protect against wantonism, a tyranny of unreason. Today, Applbaum writes, the greatest threat to the established democracies is neither inhumanity nor despotism but wantonism, the domination of citizens by incoherent, inconstant, and incontinent rulers. A government that cannot govern itself cannot legitimately govern others.

‘Stop and search’ is a form of police-citizen interaction that is confrontational, often stressful for those involved, and potentially damaging to the relationship between police and public. The extent to which police officers use their power to stop and perhaps search members of the public is intimately linked not only to the present-day context of policing but also to longer term patterns in the aims of policing, the ends used to achieve them, and ultimately to the ideology of policing in England and Wales. Stop and Search and Police Legitimacy draws upon both police-administrative and survey-based data to examine what has for many years been one of the most highly charged and contested aspects of police practice. Taking a decidedly quantitative, empirical, approach, this book examines the patterning of police stops over social and geographic space, the problem of ethnic disproportionality, and the evidence concerning how people experience and react to being stopped by police – particularly in relation to issues of fairness, legitimacy, cooperation and compliance. A further important concern is the extent to which this form of police practice shapes and re-shapes the identities of those affected by it. This ground-breaking study is a comprehensive resource for students and scholars in the fields of criminology, sociology, social policy, ethnic and racial studies and human rights. It will also be of special interest to police leaders and policy-makers.

This text offers and analysis of the political domestic message of the Syrian Press.

In European societies social differentiation, value pluralism and international integration have brought about a condition of previously unknown complexity. Citizens’ expectations regarding political participation and the legitimization of government policy are rising, yet the capacities for social integration and political consensus formation may be in decline. This volume investigates how political actors and institutions in established European democracies are seeing to manage the condition of complexity and how this condition reconfigures the foundations of democratic politics. From the Contents: Legitimacy Crises, Efficiency Gaps, Democratic Deficits Efficiency versus Democracy: Conceptual Reconciliation of a Troubled Relationship? Citizens’ Expectations: Is what matters only what works? Re-engaging Citizens: Institutional Responses to Political Disengagement Informal Government Delegated Authority: Legitimizing Independent Regulatory Agencies Delegation to the EU The Open Method of Co-ordination (OMC) and The European Employment Strategy Committee Governance in EU Agricultural Policy Efficiency versus Legitimacy: The Governance of Technology Does citizen involvement improve the quality, legitimacy and implementability of environmental policy? The Allocation of Health Care The Post-democratic Turn: Complexity and the Reconfiguration of Democratic Politics

This book examines the link between political identity and legitimacy in the European Union. Stimulated by the crisis of legitimacy and identity suffered by the EU after the referenda on the Constitutional Treaty, the editors have developed a theoretical framework to examine the interplay between these two items in the problematic development of the EU into a fully-fledged political actor. The contributors to the volume seek to: Redefine the key notions in the rigorous way of political philosophy, thus avoiding the generic or imprecise language usage found in a large part of political science literature on identity Test these concepts in the analysis of EU policies that may reveal the world views and the principles upon which EU legislation is based, and whose degree of acceptance on the side of the citizens is an indicator of how far a shared political identity has developed. Featuring case studies on foreign and environmental policy, biosafety policy, biotechnology regulation, civil society, human rights promotion, as well as studies on the role of memory, space and external views on the process of European identity-building, this book will be of interest to students and researchers of political science, political philosophy, European politics and European Studies.

Voters expect their elected representatives to pursue good policy and presume this will be securely founded on the best available knowledge. Yet when representatives emphasize their reliance on expert knowledge, they seem to defer to people whose authority derives, not politically from the sovereign people, but from the presumed objective status of their disciplinary bases. This book examines the tensions between political authority and expert authority in the formation of public policy in liberal democracies. It aims to illustrate and better understand the nature of these tensions rather than to argue specific ways of resolving them. The various chapters explore the complexity of interaction between the two forms of authority in different policy domains in order to identify both common elements and differences. The policy domains covered include: climate geoengineering discourses; environmental health; biotechnology; nuclear power; whaling; economic management; and the use of force. This volume will appeal to researchers and to convenors of post-graduate courses in the fields of policy studies, foreign policy decision-making, political science, environmental studies, democratic system studies, and science policy studies.

David Beetham's book explores the legitimation of power both as an issue in political and social science theory and in relation to the legitimacy of contemporary political systems including its breakdown in revolution. 'An admirable text which is far reaching in its scope and extraordinary in the clarity with which it covers a wide range of material... One xan have nothing but the highest regard for this volume.' - David Held, Times Higher Education Supplement;'Beetham has produced a study bound to revolutionize sociological thinking and teaching... Seminal and profoundly original... Beetham's book should become the obligitory reading for every teacher and practitioner of social science.' - Zygmunt Bauman, Sociology