Procedure or performance? Assessing citizen’s attitudes toward legitimacy in Swedish and Norwegian local government

Gustavsen, Annelin; Roiseland, Asbjørn; Pierre, Jon

doi:10.1080/17535069.2014.910924

Cited by 25 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…In addition to the scope conditions of our findings, the links between input, throughput and output legitimacy have to be explored further from a citizen's perspective. While our results suggest that these three central aspects of democratic legitimacy operate largely independently from one another in subjective legitimacy evaluations, other studies suggest that citizens might also view synergies between them (Gustavsen et al 2014). The design of our study does not allow for testing whether citizens believe that positive interaction effects exist between democratic input, throughput and output (e.g., that more democratic input also produces better output).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 60%

The importance of input and output legitimacy in democratic governance: Evidence from a population‐based survey experiment in four West European countries

Strebel

Kübler

Marcinkowski

2018

European J Political Res

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The study of subjective democratic legitimacy from a citizens’ perspective has become an important strand of research in political science. Echoing the well‐known distinction between ‘input‐oriented’ and ‘output‐oriented’ legitimacy, the scientific debate on this topic has coined two opposed views. Some scholars find that citizens have a strong and intrinsic preference for meaningful participation in collective decision making. But others argue, to the contrary, that citizens prefer ‘stealth democracy’ because they care mainly about the substance of decisions, but much less about the procedures leading to them. In this article, citizens’ preferences regarding democratic governance are explored, focusing on their evaluations of a public policy according to criteria related to various legitimacy dimensions, as well as on the (tense) relationship among them. Data from a population‐based conjoint experiment conducted in eight metropolitan areas in France, Germany, Switzerland and the United Kingdom is used. By analysing 5,000 respondents’ preferences for different governance arrangements, which were randomly varied with respect to their input, throughput and output quality as well as their scope of authority, light is shed on the relative importance of different aspects of democratic governance. It is found, first, that output evaluations are the most important driver for citizens’ choice of a governance arrangement; second, consistent positive effects of criteria of input and throughput legitimacy that operate largely independent of output evaluations can be discerned; and third, democratic input, but not democratic throughput, is considered somewhat more important when a governance body holds a high level of formal authority. These findings run counter to a central tenet of the ‘stealth democracy’ argument. While they indeed suggest that political actors and institutions can gain legitimacy primarily through the provision of ‘good output’, citizens’ demand for input and throughput do not seem to be conditioned by the quality of output as advocates of stealth democratic theory suggest. Democratic input and throughput remain important secondary features of democratic governance.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 60%

The importance of input and output legitimacy in democratic governance: Evidence from a population‐based survey experiment in four West European countries

Strebel

Kübler

Marcinkowski

2018

European J Political Res

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“…The elaboration of legitimacy typology was proposed to identify which is the angle citizens emphasize when assessing a central government's policy about refugees. For instance, Gustavsen and Pierre (2014) found evidence that the perceptions of legitimacy rooted in both procedure and performance of local government exist among citizens in Norway and Sweden in a synergetic and mutually reinforcing relationship; but differences were found by policy areas: the performancebased legitimacy appears to be regarded as more important in the case of elderly care, while procedural legitimacy is valued as more important in the case of building and planning policies. Researching the dynamics of these social judgments will contribute to the understanding on how to design public policies and to manage public institutions legitimacy to meet citizens' expectations and needs, and in the case of the policy which is the focus of this paper, about the national/international scope of peoples' concerns.…”

Section: Diplomacy Strategiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring citizens’ judgments about the legitimacy of public policies on refugees

Canel

Oliveira

Luoma‐aho

2017

JCOM

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Journal of Communication ManagementExploring citizens' judgments about the legitimacy of public policies on refugees: in search of clues for governments' communication and public diplomacy strategies Maria Jose Canel, Evandro Samuel Oliveira, Vilma Luoma-aho, Article information:To cite this document: Maria Jose Canel, Evandro Samuel Oliveira, Vilma Luoma-aho, "Exploring citizens' judgments about the legitimacy of public policies on refugees: in search of clues for governments ' For AuthorsIf you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. Exploring citizens' judgments about the legitimacy of public policies on refugees:In search of clues for governments' communication and public diplomacy strategies ABSTRACT Purpose To introduce a theoretical frame regarding the meaning of legitimacy as an intangible asset of the public sector; to test a way of operationalizing legitimacy typologies that allows exploring and comparing how citizens from two countries evaluate the legitimacy of public policies; to suggest implications for governments' legitimacy-building strategies in shared international crisis, such as the refugees coming from the Syrian-region.Design/methodology/approach Building on Suchman's typology, it was defined and categorized different types of legitimacy into concrete measurable, communication related statements concerning consequential, procedural, structural and personal. For the illustrative example, four focus groups were conducted in two different European societies as a mean to have two poles of comparison.Findings The paper reports current understanding of legitimacy by citizens, discusses how different legitimacy types might demand different communication and public diplomacy approaches. The basis for hypothesis for further research on how governments should build legitimacy during emerging societal issues such as immigration policies is set. Practical implicationsIt proposes a typology and its operationalization, discusses how communication might shape legitimacy and profiles the challenge governments have in building it. Within a public diplomacy context, it brings clues for new strategies to the challenge of explaining policies on international crisis combining the tension of domestic with foreign publics.Origi...

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“…There are certainly other modes of participation that could also be used as indicators of voice (see Appendix 2 for a list of the different voice indicators which the research project has studied). In a previous study (Gustavsen et al 2014) we show that there is strong co-variation among these voice indicators.…”

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confidence: 58%

Exit and Voice in Local Government Reconsidered: A ‘Choice Revolution’?

Pierre

Roiseland²

2016

Public Administration

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Market-based public management reform has introduced customer choice among competing providers of public services. Choice entails exit, an option which Albert Hirschman famously reserved for the market, while voice is the key mode of communication in political life. Based on elite and mass surveys, the article studies how exit is perceived by citizens and local political and administrative leaders in Norway and Sweden, and how the two strategic options relate to each other. Citizens are more positive towards customer choice and exit than are leaders, albeit with some variation across different public service sectors. Political and administrative leaders are positive towards customer choice models as a strategy to empower clients but more critical in terms of the potential loss of accountability and control that contracting out services may entail. EXIT, VOICE, AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF LOCAL DEMOCRACYThe strategies available to citizens and clients of public services to influence political and administrative choice have proliferated over the past couple of decades. Most importantly, clients -or customers -of public services are increasingly often offered a choice among competing service providers. Thus, in service sectors like primary education, care of the elderly, daycare for preschool children and even the annual safety control of automobiles, clients in many European countries are now provided with choice in a competitive market with a wide range of public, private and cooperative service producers (Blomqvist 2004; see also Klitgaard 2007).This reform has altered not just public service delivery but also the strategies available to citizens to influence local service and, indeed, the democratic discourse and practice of the local state. Previously, applying 'exit' in Hirschman's classic framework to local politics essentially meant moving to another municipality (Friedman 1955;Hirschman 1970). The steep costs associated with that type of exit behaviour were probably an effective deterrent even to the most disenchanted clients. However, with customer choice now in place in a large number of service areas in many countries, the exit option has become a much more realistic and less costly strategic alternative for clients.This article investigates the conceptual and theoretical relationship between 'exit' and 'voice' in public service delivery. Drawing on a unique survey among local senior politicians, managers and citizens in Norway and Sweden we find that there is a positive relationship among citizens between 'exit' and 'voice' as means of influencing public service. Politicians and public managers are less positive towards the introduction of 'exit' than are the citizens.The next section of the article explores the conceptual and theoretical aspects of these issues. We then introduce our research design and discuss our key results. A concluding section closes the article.Interestingly, Hirschman saw exit first and foremost as associated with the market whereas voice as a strategy of articulating a complaint...

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Procedure or performance? Assessing citizen’s attitudes toward legitimacy in Swedish and Norwegian local government

Cited by 25 publications

References 18 publications

The importance of input and output legitimacy in democratic governance: Evidence from a population‐based survey experiment in four West European countries

The importance of input and output legitimacy in democratic governance: Evidence from a population‐based survey experiment in four West European countries

Exploring citizens’ judgments about the legitimacy of public policies on refugees

Exit and Voice in Local Government Reconsidered: A ‘Choice Revolution’?

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