Why Do People Accept Public Policies They Oppose? Testing Legitimacy Theory with a Survey-Based Experiment

‘Can you pass the salt?’ The legitimacy of international institutions and indirect speech

“…Increasingly, scholars have turned to the analysis of public communications and statements as a methodology for the empirical study of legitimacy and the process of legitimation (Binder and Heupel, 2014;Eisentraut, 2013;Haunss, 2007;Schmidtke and Nullmeier, 2011;Schneider et al, 2007;Steffek, 2003). In contrast to survey-based approaches, which ask members of a political community what they think about the legitimacy of institutions (Gibson et al, 2005;Weatherford, 1992), communication-based approaches study what members say about the legitimacy of institutions. Ian Hurd (2007b: 203) argues that 'States (and people) appear to find it irresistible to provide a justification for their behaviour', and according to Martha Finnemore and Kathryn Sikkink (1998: 892), this need for justification will 'leave an extensive trail of communication among actors that we can study '.…”

How Partisan Conflict in Congress Affects Public Opinion

“…They can affect the reelection chances of incumbents (Born, 1990;Jones & McDermott, 2010), discourage prospective candidates for running for office (Fowler & McClure, 1989), and affect the perceived legitimacy of the institution and its outputs (Gibson et al, 2005;Hibbing & Theiss-Morse, 2001;Tyler, 1994). As noted by Durr et al (1997), "Without the support of the governed, the already difficult legislative process may become even more so, and the policy that emerges may lack a sense of legitimacy" (p. 177).…”

“…Our approach varies not just the legislative behavior of the parties (i.e., compromise or partisanship) but also the consequence of partisanship (i.e., a partisan win, partisan loss, or gridlock). As a result, this work speaks to larger questions regarding the relationship between approaches to governing, policy outputs, institutional approval, and legitimacy (Gibson, Caldeira, & Spence, 2005;Hibbing & Theiss-Morse, 2001;Tyler, 1994).…”

Televising Supreme Court Oral Argument?

“…87 The consistent baseline statistical finding for diffuse support is that it is strongly positive, despite skepticism about the Court's being too political -this appears to run true although diffuse support has suffered a drop over the last decade and a half or so. 88 At the individual level of analysis, diffuse support varies along the lines of variables such as "religious affiliation, commitment to democratic norms, and feelings toward the national government." 89 Another baseline finding is that aggregate diffuse support tends to remain strong despite short-term incidents of weaker specific support.…”