Is there a general moral duty to obey the law because it is the law? This is the question of political obligation. The issue of political obligation is allegedly a central topic of political philosophy, because political obligation is often assumed to be necessary for state legitimacy; that is to say, for a state to be legitimate, it must be capable of imposing political obligation on the governed. Nonetheless, the literature has indicated that it is enormously difficult, at least within the liberal doctrine that many find most attractive, to justify political obligation. Given that political obligation is viewed as an indispensable part of state legitimacy, skepticism about political obligation points to a seemingly inescapable yet disturbing conclusion: no existing liberal state is legitimate, no matter how just it is. This skeptical position is also known as philosophical anarchism. This study aims to show that philosophical anarchism is not as irresistible as it appears. But I do not take the traditional approach of refuting philosophical anarchism by defending or developing theories of political obligation. On the contrary, I devote the first part of my thesis to consolidating the skepticism about political obligation. The approach I favor is to argue that political obligation is not necessary for state legitimacy. If this point can be established, then even if political obligation is unjustified, it will not automatically lead to philosophical anarchism. This constitutes the second part of my thesis, where I develop a conception of “legitimacy without political obligation” and defend it against the objection that it is either conceptually or morally wrong to claim that a legitimate state need not impose political obligation on its subjects. / published_or_final_version / Politics and Public Administration / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

The present dissertation reconstructs the notion of legitimacy in Ecuador between 1996 and 2007 in order to re-think our measurements and understanding of Latin American democracies. Empirically, the analysis is centered on the country`s puzzling tendency to survive institutional volatility, bad economic performance and social unrest, while the theoretical section underlines the importance of the vertical and horizontal participatory components of legitimacy. After exploring different plausible explanations of Ecuador`s puzzling mixture of political turmoil and regime endurance, this dissertation concludes that legitimacy helped democracy to endure in Ecuador. The main conclusion is that the horizontal components of political participation and the enactment of democratic values by social movements as well as new political parties played a key role in the survival of democracy. The dissertation contributes to the democratization literature by encompassing the normative elements of democracy, while at the same time contributes to democratic theory by pushing further the boundaries of a notion and a case that requires further attention.

No description available.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Florida, 2009. / Title from title page of source document. Document formatted into pages; contains 181 pages. Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1989. / Also available in print.

This thesis explores what it is like for families when a person is sentenced to a period of imprisonment in Scotland. Drawing on interviews with men and women in custody, family members in the community and relevant professionals this thesis will argue that the family relationships affected by imprisonment are many and varied: just as in wider society there is no one model of “prisoners’ families”. Despite the restriction of liberty inherent to a prison sentence, these families find creative ways to maintain relationships through active, embodied ‘displays’ and ‘practices’ such as physical affection, revisiting shared memories and traditions and the sharing of food, routines, family time and other ‘home comforts’. It is these displays that define and characterise family relations, rather than strict categories of blood or marriage. Yet imprisonment imposes a number of barriers to reciprocal family relationships and maintaining these active displays takes considerable effort on the part of the family outside. This division of emotional and practical labour is highly gendered, and as a result supporting a family member in custody can serve to entrench both gendered caring roles and the social marginality already experienced by participants. Finally, this thesis will argue that the complexity of family life is often not fully reflected in criminal justice policy or practice, yet the ways in which families are seen and responded to have implications for the overall legitimacy of the system. Together, these claims should cause us to reflect critically on the wider costs of imprisonment.

The present dissertation reconstructs the notion of legitimacy in Ecuador between 1996 and 2007 in order to re-think our measurements and understanding of Latin American democracies. Empirically, the analysis is centered on the country`s puzzling tendency to survive institutional volatility, bad economic performance and social unrest, while the theoretical section underlines the importance of the vertical and horizontal participatory components of legitimacy. After exploring different plausible explanations of Ecuador`s puzzling mixture of political turmoil and regime endurance, this dissertation concludes that legitimacy helped democracy to endure in Ecuador. The main conclusion is that the horizontal components of political participation and the enactment of democratic values by social movements as well as new political parties played a key role in the survival of democracy. The dissertation contributes to the democratization literature by encompassing the normative elements of democracy, while at the same time contributes to democratic theory by pushing further the boundaries of a notion and a case that requires further attention. / Arts, Faculty of / Political Science, Department of / Graduate

Abstract The aim of the study is to reveal the nature of learning in local land-use planning activity and to examine the possibilities for the development of planning as a form of learning activity. The theoretical approach draws on the pragmatist and dialectical reorientation of systems theory and the related theory of learning organizations. The traditional, positivist systems approach to land-use planning is considered both to depoliticize planning and to make it unreflective. Critical theory as a basis of planning theory is also shown to be inadequate. Communicative planning theories that draw on critical theory are rather theories of emancipation in the context of planning than theories of planning per se. An alternative systems-theoretical view to land-use planning activity is presented, where critical and constructive aspects as well as ethical and pragmatic aspects are interlinked in the dialectical dynamics of planning as organizational and inter-organizational learning activity. Three subsystems within the system of local land-use planning are identified: expertise, politics and economics. The subsystems of land-use planning build upon the basic distinction between legitimate and illegitimate conduct. For each subsystem, the context of its existence is formed by the interaction of all subsystems. By acting, each subsystem inevitably changes its dialectical relationship to this context. Harmful changes are felt within the subsystem as inner contradictions that interfere with its decision-making activity. If the subsystem is unable to face these contradictions but instead resorts to the use of pathological power, they may develop into paralyzing double bind situations. The resolution of a double bind situation requires expansive learning by the subsystem. However, there are also contradictions in land-use planning that the subsystems are unable to resolve by expansive learning. Such inter-systemic contradictions stem from the dialectical relationship between the overriding requirement of legitimacy on one hand and the basic goals of expert knowledge and economic profit on the other. In the study a hypothesis is formulated, according to which these basic - and, in the conditions of modern society, permanent - contradictions in local land-use planning require such inter-organizational learning, which enables the creation of planning solutions that provide means for their task-related harmonization, and, in the longer term, contributes to the emergence of a participative planning culture where the contradictions can be handled legitimately, if not resolved.

Injustice, be it procedural, retributive, or restorative, can propel the crowd into different forms of collective action. This dissertation explores the motivations and responses that crowds undertake in response to perceived injustices using a sequential exploratory research design. The dissertation uses multicase research to investigate the injustices against which crowds (broadly defined) are fighting and provides nuances into each type of injustice. Focusing on these cases, the research adapts and applies Hirschman's Exit, Voice and Loyalty theory to provide a typological model connecting injustices to crowd response types. Second, a series of linear, logistic and multinominal regression models using newly collected nationally representative data show the associations between perceived injustices and support for responses of various types. The research contributes a theoretical model for understanding responses to injustices which advances the discussion about the public's role in fighting injustice within society. / Doctor of Philosophy / People can react in all manner to injustices. They might march in the streets demanding justice, inform police of the identities of wrongdoers, or bury a sexual offender alive. This dissertation connects these seemingly disjointed occurrences and investigates the diverse perceived injustices (retributive, procedural and restorative) behind such actions. It examines multiple case studies of initiatives by the crowd from around the global to illustrate the nuances in the perceived injustices. The research also adapts the Hirschman's Exit, Voice and Loyalty framework about failing companies and States to connect what appears to be a random assortment of actions. Using the findings from the multiple case studies, the dissertation tests using a series of statistical models whether perceived injustices among the general US population lead to increased support for certain ways in which the crowd can fight for justice.

Problem: Legitimacy is a resource that organizations depend on for their survival. According to legitimacy theory companies need to make sure that they are recognized as operating within the bounds and norms of society and sustainability reports is a way for companies to communicate this. Due to an addition to the Swedish annual accounting law in 2016, large companies are required to produce a sustainability report and to report the consequences that the company operations has on the environment, social conditions, employees, respect for human rights and counteracting corruption. Because companies are required to disclose these negative aspects, they need to do it strategically to not damage their legitimacy. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to understand how Swedish companies in the steel industry legitimize negative aspects of their operations in sustainability reports and to understand if there is a pattern between the type of negative aspect disclosed and the type of legitimation strategy used. Method: To achieve the purpose of our study, a qualitative method has been used. A multiple case-study with a document analysis has been conducted on the sustainability reports of Sandvik, SSAB, Boliden, LKAB and Outokumpu for year 2018. To conduct this study, legitimacy theory and Hahn & Lülfs (2014) legitimation strategies have been essential to fulfill the purpose. Results: Swedish companies in the steel industry use Hahn & Lülfs (2014) legitimation strategies and our new identified legitimation strategy, balancing, to legitimize negative aspects in their sustainability reports. We found four clear patterns between the type of negative aspect reported and the strategy used to legitimize the aspect. Conclusion: Our findings confirm that Hahn & Lülfs (2014) strategies to explain how companies legitimize negative aspects in sustainability reports are also applicable to the Swedish steel industry. The contribution to previous research on this topic is the new additional strategy that is used by the analyzed companies.