...politics Power gets used to implement a decision. The role of Power becomes most effective when Power does not remain a source of coercion. In-fact after getting legitimized it becomes Authority. Means the stability of Authority depends upon legitimacy. So in short Authority is a quality or capacity of a person, institution, rule or order which becomes important in defining whether Authority is correct or authentic, so that people can follow the rules and regulation without any hesitation. Because of the use of Authority official Governmental policies, rules and regulations get accepted in the society. Authority has two main components: Power and Legitimacy. Legitimacy of a rule or a decision signifies the fact that people reckon the decision as fruitful and in welfare of the society. Thus they are always ready to follow the rule or decision. Demonstration of Power does not become necessary as long as Legitimacy is attached to Power. It only comes out as a symbol. Like a judge with his black gown or a policeman with his uniform. Just like beauty lies in the eyes of beholder, Legitimacy lies in the eyes of beholder. There is no question, that without Power it will be very difficult to implement the official decision as well as rules, but only by the fear of punishment or by the coercion authority may not prove successful as far as long term benefits are concerned. Infact such a step becomes tyranny and works as a catalyst for the rebellion. The able use of Power always gets...
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...balance of: Power, authority and legitimacy. These three concepts are interrelated and a society in absence of one or the other usually finds itself in strain from political instability. In the following essay the question “how do Plato, John Locke and Nicollo Machiavelli address the concepts of: power, authority and legitimacy” shall be discussed. Reference shall be made on how each theorist addresses the above concepts. John Locke addresses the concept of legitimacy. He agrees with Thomas Hobbes in that “the British monarchy lost some of its authority” (John 1689), but he believed it came about because “the monarchy had tried to exceed the scope of its authority” (John 1689).Locke believes the people were acting `natural’ by being disruptive because the monarchy broke the `contract’ by wanting absolute power. Thomas Hobbes agrees with Locke in that the monarchy “suffered from a failure of authority” (Thomas 1651.part 1) but he believes it came about because the monarchy was careless and didn’t know what was expected from them as a ruler. Plato also addresses legitimacy in the Greek government. Plato believes that we live in a world of illusions and that the Greek citizens executed themselves when they executed Socrates. Plato tells us illusions can be dangerous “allegory of the cave” (Spragens 1997). Machiavelli deals with power and “believes a good state, is a state that is well ruled” (Machiavelli 1513 chapter12) He believes that unrest is caused by the lust for power. And believes...
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...Definitional activity (covering Power, Authority, and Legitimacy) There is no universally accepted view of power. Some authors have defined power as domination over others (Hobbes, 1651) while others defined it as a passage to achieve goals (Parsons, 1963). Some look to where power lies to define power from where power lies in the hands of many, this can be seen as Pluralism (Dahl, 1957) to where power lies in the hands of a few, this can be seen as Elitism (Pareto, 1935) but essentially it is the ability to do something For example, in the UK system, there are many accounts of both Elitism and Pluralism but realistically, we live in an Elitist state. The definition of authority is based on the power or right to act in a particular way and to influence others. To excise authority, consent is needed. Some may argue that there are three types of authority: charismatic authority, traditional authority and rational-legal authority (Weber, 1958). It can be argued that authority is used to excise social control (McLaughlin, 2008) and even that we, as humans, need authority in order to live (Seligman, 2003). An example of authority in the UK system could be the Prime Minister, as he has the power to “give orders, make decisions, and enforce obedience” (Collins English Dictionary, 2009). The definition of legitimacy has many forms and shapes but some may argue that it derives from something that is right and proper. “Legitimacy has both a normative and a sociological meaning” (Keohane...
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...of a stakeholder as ‘. . . ANY group or individual who can affect or is affected by the achievement of the organization’s objectives’. This is a very broad definition meaning that in today’s global business environment any individuals and groups may be business’s stakeholders (Davey, 2015). This sparks the debate about whether or not the natural environment can be identifiable as a stakeholder. In the ethics in practice case ‘Are Plants and Flowers Stakeholders? Do they have rights?’ this topic is highlighted. The following discussion will review the idea of the environment as a primary stakeholder taking into account the stakeholder identification framework of Mitchell et al. (1997), suggesting that stakeholders have a mixture of legitimacy, power and urgency(Davey, 2015). In keeping up with the growing concern for sustainability many argue that the natural environment should be considered among important stakeholders (Davey, 2015). Historically the natural environment has often been neglected because it has never had a spokesperson(Davey, 2015). However as a concern for the environment (particularly global warming) grows so does the number of environmental groups. Groups such as Greenpeace are regarded as indirect stakeholders and as a result many organisations fail to fully incorporate their concerns into their business(Davey, 2015). As an attempt to make the wellbeing of the natural environment a priority Ecuador has passed a new law that recognises ecosystem rights as...
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...TABLE OF CONTENT 1.0 Introduction 1 2.0 Elements of Breakdown 2 3.0 The Process of Breakdown 4 4.0 The End of Democracy 5 5.0 The Process of Re-equilibration 5 6.0 Conclusion 6 LIST OF MODELS Model 1: Relationship of Legitimacy, Efficacy and Effectiveness towards Stability and Performance 3 THE BREAKDOWN OF DEMOCRATIC REGIMES: CRISIS, BREAKDOWN & REEQUILIBRATION Introduction Many existing literature on the collapse of the democracy concentrated on rises of nondemocratic political powers or the fundamental structural tension that lead to the breakdown of democratic institution. In this publication, author, Juan J. Linz is giving attention to dynamic of the political process of breakdown by referring to tragic consequences of democratic collapse in German, Spain and Chile. This attention has begun during the author childhood where he was concerned with the fate of Spanish democracy, the fate his as citizen. This concern later had shared with Alfred Stepan who writes a dissertation on the breakdown of democracy in Brazil. Both of them get support and attention from many people and agencies. The focus firstly gets attention at the Seventh World Congress of Sociology at Varna, Bulgaria in 1970. In year 1973, with the support from the Concilium of International and Area Studies of Yale University, and the Joint Committee on Latin America of Social Science Research Council and the American Council of Learned Societies, Linz and Stepan chaired the conference...
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...Harvard Law School Jean Monnet Chair Professor J.H.H. Weiler Harvard Jean Monnet Working Paper 1/01 Päivi Leino The European Central Bank and Legitimacy Is the ECB a Modification of or an Exception to the Principle of Democracy? Harvard Law School Cambridge, MA 02138 All rights reserved. No part of this paper may be reproduced in any form Without permission of the author. © Päivi Leino 2000 Harvard Law School Cambridge, MA 02138 USA The European Central Bank and Legitimacy Is the ECB a Modification of or an Exception to the Principle of Democracy? Päivi Leino, Åbo Akademi University( M.Pol.Sc. (international law), Åbo Akademi University, Finland; LL.M. candidate, London School of Economics and Political Science. This paper was concluded on August 8, 2000 and subsequent changes have not been considered. The author would like to thank Professor Markku Suksi and Lic.Pol.Sc. Kurt Långkvist for their comments and encouragement. The author has exclusive responsibility for all views, errors and omissions. Comments are invited to Paivi.Leino@abo.fi.) 1. The Sovereign of Monetary Policy The creation of a single market and the continuing concentration and integration at the European level have created phenomena that can neither be governed by nationally based policies nor left to the working of unregulated markets.( Hirst, Paul and Thompson, Grahame (1996), p. 156.) According to the European Court of Justice...
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...Charlemagne to legitimize the rule of Louis the Pious by establishing and transferring the legitimacy of his father Charlemagne’s rule. Einhard stated that his two reasons for writing this biography were to share the “splendid life” of the king (136) and to honor his relationship with Charles and his children (136). This almost certainly included a relationship with Louis since he was the clear heir to the throne for several years (145). This relationship and Einhard’s previous position on Louis’ court likely brought him to write this biography as a tool to honor his deceased friend while serving the political goal of legitimizing Louis’ rule. Einhard accomplished this goal by legitimizing Charlemagne’s rise to power, using Charles’ deeds to justify his own reign, and transferring this legitimacy to Louis through a clear line of succession....
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...framework of government * => Constitutionalism should be distinguished from the mere possession of a constitution * Written constitutions may provide few effective constraints on government or may be ignored, and governments may be effectively constrained w/o a written constitution (e.g. Britain) * Constitutionalism often (does not mean it necessarily equals to) associated specifically with liberalism, protection of individual rights against the state. * => constitutional state identified not by possession of a constitution but by its effective protection of individual rights. * (but individual rights only one set of fundamental principles that might impose meaningful limits on power of the state) * Constitutionalism also used to constrain power holders to care for the common weal or adhere to particular conceptions of national identity or religious law * 3-fold classification of province of constitutionalism * Normative Constitutionalism (most touched-on area) * Concerned with problem of how to reconcile constitutionalism and democracy * Asks questions like how best to legitimize practice of judicial review, how constitutional texts to be interpreted, what’s the best conception of democracy, what set of constitutional rights most worthy of recognition: interpretation, content, structure * Conceptual Constitutionalism * Concerned with what...
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...The pure-types of legitimacy within a power-holder that Max Weber describes in his text, “Politics as a Vocation”, can most definitely be applied to administrative structures like those of a business organization or a company. The most evident form of legitimacy accorded to those in higher positions in this instance is the Rational-legal authority, which as Weber mentions, has come to constitute the concept of hierarchical relations, and can be applied to the administration of an organization. This authority which has a basis in legality, and and inclination for the formality of rules and policies is fully applicable to this corporate entity as the structure enables for an anonymous, definite relation between the dominators and the dominated. Weber puts forth that obedience is determined by fear or hope—fear of the vengeance of the power-holder, and hope for reward. In the business organization, individual players at the bottom of the pyramid definitely demonstrate this attitude in regards to the relation between them and their superiors. A typical worker in the capitalist economy seeks to move upwards, and therefore must do a good job, and adhere to the rules established by their superiors in order to be favored for promotion. This demonstrates the above duality of fear and hopes; fear to get fired, or retrograded, and hope for advancement, higher pay, etc… The superiors (CEO, and board executives) have authority due to the power they exert on said individual players, as their...
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...Reflection Organisational legitimacy, capacity and capacity development Mobilising against hunger and for life: An analysis of Derick W. Brinkerhoff capacity and change in a Brazilian network John Saxby Pretoria, South Africa Discussion paper No 58A June 2005 European Centre for Development Policy Management Centre européen de gestion des politiques de développement Study of Capacity, Change and Performance Notes on the methodology The lack of capacity in low-income countries is one of the main constraints to achieving the Millennium Development Goals. Even practitioners confess to having only a limited understanding of how capacity actually develops. In 2002, the chair of Govnet, the Network on Governance and Capacity Development of the OECD, asked the European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM) in Maastricht, the Netherlands to undertake a study of how organisations and systems, mainly in developing countries, have succeeded in building their capacity and improving performance. The resulting study focuses on the endogenous process of capacity development - the process of change from the perspective of those undergoing the change. The study examines the factors that encourage it, how it differs from one context to another, and why efforts to develop capacity have been more successful in some contexts than in others. The study consists of about 20 field cases carried out according to a methodological framework with seven components, as follows:...
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...political power. Essentially, terrorism is about acquiring awareness in society for its cause, subsequently questioning the government’s stance or perspective. In doing so terrorism, as this essay will discuss, creates reservations about the legitimacy of the current government, raises doubts surrounding the power of the state; a manoeuvre that demands concessions. Moreover, terrorism has taken on a pseudo religious-political form that has resulted in an involuntary knee-jerk reaction throughout the modern liberal democracies in the Western World. Not many events, actions or ideologies have influenced politics as terrorism has done so consistently throughout history. Terrorism and politics intertwine more than many understand. Terrorism is a catalyst for political interaction and development; as politics is seldom contained to one opinion, it is home to a myriad of diverse beliefs and judgements. It is about command and control and is not regulated to a sole individual, but the interconnections of various people from differing backgrounds and faiths, prompting revolution, oppression and liberalisation (Delaware Criminal Justice Council [DCJC] 2012, para. 1). It is this dynamic and multifaceted concept of politics that enables the rise of terrorism - in which individuals, groups and societies aim for change, as these factions challenge the ruling government or nation state in a David verse Goliath standoff in the struggle for survival, power and legitimacy...
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...357-359). Discourse, as Foucault also contends, is contingent and fluid, responding to changes in power which in turn influence the emergence of new or modified truth paradigms. Alone, symbolism in buildings and literature are meaningless (Bell, 2003, p. 73). Significance has is imbued from memories derived from dominant nationalist projects to become transmitted, allowing recollection to “transcend the individual consciousness” (p. 73) into the public sphere. From this, we can see how when Foucault’s theory is applied to competing nationalisms, we can observe how factors determining shifts in power inform resultant transitions in collective...
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...of being new to the business. Potential stakeholders view firms in these industries with skepticism. An important way that new ventures can overcome the liability of newness and increase their gains from new products is by taking actions that provide them with legitimacy in the eyes of stakeholders. new ventures can gain legitimacy by creating associations with more established entities, either external or internal to the firm. Article Review: This article is written by Raghunath Singh Rao, Rajesh K. Chandy, & Jaideep C. Prabhu.In this study, the role of a variety of legitimizing actions have been highlighted and empirically tested. In order to legitimize the new ventures in the eyes of the stakeholders different actions can to undertaken.It has also been shown that these legitimizing actions may not always work together. Among internal means of gaining legitimacy, four types of actions has been proposed: historical, scientific, market, and locational. Actions associated with historical legitimacy convey to stakeholders information about the new ventures’ past business performance.It can be shown if the new ventures have successfully launched other products in the past.Actions associated with scientific legitimacy convey to stakeholders that the new ventures in question have the technological capabilities needed to operate in their...
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...like to present the following argument that suggests real success can be achieved by working with and caring for communities and stakeholders. If we were to believe that companies would only succeed by looking after their shareholders we would surely limit the opportunities for any firm to have any community purpose and would remove any of the benefits that can be achieved by working with other key stakeholders. Firms can benefit greatly from interaction with wider stakeholders and can reap benefits when they care about their communities because these communities can be seen to work together with firms to support mutual success. In outlining my views I will refer to three theories, namely stakeholder theory, legitimacy theory and agency theory and make a case for how an interaction of these theories will support my views that business succeeds when it cares about its community. Stakeholder Theory, (Financial Times Lexicon, 2011), ‘Stakeholder theory suggests that the purpose of a business is to create as much value as possible for stakeholders. In order to succeed and be sustainable over time, executives must keep the interests of customers, suppliers, employees, communities and shareholders aligned and going in the same direction. Innovation to keep these interests aligned is more important than the easy strategy of trading off the...
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...creatures who would do anything to better their positions. Also that people could not be trusted to make decisions on their own and a country needed an authority figure to provide direction and leadership. Therefore, he believed in monarchy- a government that gave all power to a king or queen. He said that democracy would never work because people were only interested in promoting their own self-interests. Despite this doubt of democracy, he believed that a contrasting group of representatives presenting the problems of the common person would prevent a king from being unfair and cruel. Hobbes originates the phrase 'Voice of the people' meaning one person could be chosen to represent a group with similar views. Legitimacy of government Hobbes was a dedicated materialist. The views that got him in trouble were related to this, as Hobbes claimed to believe in God, but believed that since only the material universe existed, God must be a material being, just one with great powers. Hobbes sought legitimacy for government not founded in religion, because his sort of religion wasn't what most Christians would regard as Christianity. He also saw that a new source of legitimacy for the state was needed, because kings and priests had been working very hard at...
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