This dissertation examines the process of through which the government of the People's Republic of China ostensibly produces popular legitimacy by inculcating an attachment to Chinese national identity among the public. It seeks to understand the theoretical connections between national identity and support for the state and to learn which groups of people are most affected by the state's influences in this regard. A basic two-step process is theorized, in which the first step is the state's attempt to shape the public's concept of Chinese national identity and the public's attachment to the nation. The bulk of the dissertation addresses this part of the process at the individual level. Two main mechanisms of state influence on national identity are examined: the educational system and the mass media. The main method of research used is the analysis of survey data. The analysis here comes from three survey datasets: the 2005-2008 wave of the World Values Surveys, the 2006-2007 Chinese Ethnicity Survey, and the 2008 China Survey. In the investigation of Chinese education, survey data analysis is supplemented by field research conducted in two middle schools in China, including classroom observation and informal conversations with teachers and students. A brief analysis of a middle school Chinese history textbook is also included. These qualitative investigations are able to show the mechanisms through which education produces an attachment to Chinese national identity. The last chapter of the dissertation turns to the second step in the process: nationalism's relationship with support for the state at the individual level. Survey data are again used to investigate this relationship. This dissertation finds evidence that the state is able, to a certain extent, to influence national identity among the public, both in terms of the elements of Chinese national identity, and in terms of the strength of people's attachment to the nation. A person's level of exposure to the media and his or her level of education are both shown to be significant predictors of their levels of attachment to Chinese national identity, and these relationships look just as the theory would expect. With respect to the second part of the process, strong evidence is found that those who cling more tightly to Chinese national identity are more supportive of the state. In addition to this relatively unsurprising finding, however, we find that this relationship is the strongest among Han Chinese, and among those with particular ideas about the social purposes of China. From these findings it is concluded that the process of state legitimation through nationalism--an oft-mentioned but rarely examined process--does, to some extent, work. Levels of education and media consumption are some of the most powerful predictors of national attachment, and national attachment itself is the most powerful predictor of state support. However, while these are statistically significant relationships, they are not to be overstated. Most of the variation at the individual level, both in Chinese national identity and in state support, remains unexplained: both are difficult to successfully predict based on the models. The state, while it does have a `nationalizing' impact through the media and the educational system, does not by any means have control over popular levels of nationalism or state support.

Sociologists have studied how organizations respond to perceived risks, but overlooked how individuals react to perceptions of organizational risks. We may expect individuals to avoid the goods and services of supposedly risky organizations, but how do other social judgments of organizations, such as those concerning reputation, relate to individuals’ risk aversion independently from their perceptions of risk? Social psychological theories on legitimacy and status and psychological theories on risk perception can bridge these gaps. Using data from the 2006 General Social Survey, this paper tests how individuals’ aversion to genetically modified foods (GMOs) relates to their perceptions of organizational risks and other qualities of business leaders, medical researchers, and political officials who are involved with producing, evaluating, and regulating GMOs. Logistic regression models find that individuals’ perceptions of medical researchers’ ignorance and disagreement about GMOs’ possible risks synergistically interact to increase the probability of rejecting GMOs. Individuals’ deferral of political influence to medical researchers attenuated the increased odds of rejecting GMOs among individuals who believe that industry scientists are disreputable. Surprisingly, perceived risks among business and political leaders were unrelated to GMO aversion. These results extend sociological risk research by demonstrating how individuals’ responses to perceived organizational risks are shaped by social characteristics such as reputations. Finally, links are drawn to inform social movement literatures and debates on GMOs, as reputational correlates exist independently from individuals’ knowledge of science, environmentalism, and generalized trust.

This thesis examines the strategic and potentially legitimising nature of voluntary environmental reporting. First, the thesis examines the relationship between emission levels on the National Pollutant Inventory and the quantity of total voluntary environmental disclosures, voluntary emission disclosures and positive voluntary environmental disclosures in annual reports. Second, an examination of changes in the quantity of disclosures discussing compliance with the National Pollutant Inventory and/or disclosures concerning pollution emissions is undertaken. Taking into consideration the findings relating to the strategic nature of voluntary disclosures, the thesis then examines the potential of such disclosures to impact upon the usefulness of mandatory annual report disclosure requirements. This is undertaken by investigating whether significant differences exist between environmental disclosure practices in the voluntary sections of annual reports for corporations reporting non-compliance, and those not reporting non-compliance, in the directors' report pursuant with the requirements of s. 299(1)(f) of the Corporations Law. The findings suggest that, for the sample corporations, a change in environmental regulation may have been an impetus for changes in voluntary environmental disclosure practices in annual reports. Disclosures are identified as being discretionary, and potentially reactive to changes in environmental regulation, with a significant increase in the quantity of voluntary disclosures relating to the National Pollutant Inventory and in the number of corporations making voluntary emission disclosures during the period. Hence, voluntary disclosures, although discretionary, may provide some indication of the corporation's actual environmental activities and provides some support for industry arguments to maintain a voluntary environmental disclosure system. A comparison of the quantity and nature of voluntary disclosures for corporations required to report non-compliance with, and those reporting no non-compliance with, environmental regulations in the directors' report found no significant differences in disclosure practices between the two groups; that is, in contrast to the findings of previous research, those reporting non-compliance had no higher propensity for either greater quantities of voluntary environmental disclosures or positive voluntary environmental disclosures. The findings suggest that the limitations faced by s. 299(1)(f) in its early years may have resulted in it not being perceived as a legitimacy threat by the sample corporations or as a lesser threat than others such as the NPI. Therefore, questions remain as to whether the section is able to produce the outcomes proposed at its inception. Overall, taking into consideration the discretionary nature of voluntary environmental disclosures, and the limitations of s. 299(1)(f), concern remains as to the quality of the Australian annual report environmental reporting system and the potential for the existence of voluntary environmental disclosures in the annual report to reduce the usefulness of a mandatory disclosure system to users. These findings suggest a need for further research into the effect of both mandatory and voluntary environmental disclosures on users' perceptions of corporate environmental performance.

<p>The African Union (AU) is the continent-wide project for economic and political integration in Africa. It takes inspiration from the European Union (EU), where two major problems could be discerned. Firstly, the European and the African context differ from each other, economically,socially and politically. Secondly, the EU itself has been criticized for legitimacy problems,including ineffective decision-making processes, not satisfying tasks for the European Parliament (EP), and low voter turnout in the elections to the EP. Thus, it is interesting to ask whether it ispossible to create a legitimate African Union with the objectives to unite and strengthen the African continent through political and economic actions, when it takes inspiration from a quasisupranational organization which operates in a different political setting, and whose legitimacy hasbeen highly questioned.</p><p>The purpose of this paper was to examine and discuss whether the AU faces legitimacy problems,and if it does, what kind of legitimacy-problems? To specify the purpose, three questions were posed:</p><p>What is the status of the process of making the Pan-African Parliament (PAP) a legislativeand popularly authorized organ?</p><p>What are the AU's ambitions and means for building a common African identity?</p><p>How is the AU financed, and what can be said about the economy's effect on the AU'scapacity to perform effectively?</p><p>The conclusions show that the AU seems to be facing legitimacy problems. Firstly, a legislative organ is important in this kind of organization, and in order to be a legitimate legislative organ it is important to have the representatives elected by the people. The project of transforming the PAPinto a legislative organ has started, but to let the people elect their representatives to the PAP has notyet been provided for. Secondly, it seems like the AU have problems concerning funding. The basic means for funding the AU is through member-state contributions, and the AU suffers from outstanding payments, delayed payments, and some also argues that the member-state contributions are too small. This is a major obstacle for the union's development, since a weak economy willhinder the AU institutions' performance. The AU also stands before a huge task of creating a sharedAfrican identity – that is, creating the African demos. The ambitions for carrying out this project are expressed in different AU-documents, and the PAP have a great role in this project. Although, tostudy how this project is going was not a part of this paper's purpose and is left for further research.</p>

This study aims to investigate the consequences for feminist sex therapy that it is promoted as an alternative to a mainstream approach. Analytically I focus on the relation between normativity, claims to knowledge and professional legitimacy. I study sex therapeutic academic texts, and the material is approached through a framework developed by combining Donna Haraway’s concept of situated knowledges with elements from Karen Barad’s agential realism My analysis starts in feminist sex therapists’ criticism of how masculine norms in mainstream sex therapy lead to a flawed theory of sexual matters. Feminist sex therapists, however, allege that it is specifically feminist norms that grant a more complete theory of sex and sexual problems within feminist alternatives in sex therapy. To that effect, feminists discern sexual problems in relation to the impact a patriarchal society has on particularly women’s sexualities, and treatment is articulated as seeking to liberate women from constraints associated with gendered social positions. In mainstream sex therapy, allegedly value-neutral insights into human physiology are called upon for the establishment of professional legitimacy. Nevertheless, normative investments are relied upon implicitly to discern sexual problems and sexual well-being with the consequence that sexual problems are understood as conditions that interfere with the ability to have sex, largely equated with coitus, and with the motivation to form coupled sexual relations. By alleviating sexual problems, these abilities and motivations are allegedly restored in the form of natural, already present, capacities for sexual functioning. Comparing my analysis to feminist critiques, I argue that the latter have not fully theorized the significance of normative investments, and have left unchallenged assumptions in mainstream therapy that enable a restorative and liberationist construal of sex therapy’s objective. Although feminist alternatives contain a markedly different theorization of sexual problems, they have retained, from the mainstream approach, the notion that sex therapy seeks to liberate its clients. This notion stands in conflict with feminist theorizations of sexual problems, and in my conclusion I argue that feminist sex therapy would benefit from abandoning its liberationist element.

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The widespread and rapid internationalization of small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the healthcare sector is outpacing our efforts to understand the motives behind this phenomenon and the processes that propel it. This paper investigates the internationalization processes of Swedish SMEs that operate in the international healthcare markets. Based on interviews from five SMEs, the study seeks to understand why these SMEs internationalize, and how and in what way this internationalization process unfolds. By developing a conceptual model based on previous literature for SME internationalization, knowledge and networks, and the regulatory environment in which the SMEs operate, the findings are analyzed in the context of the healthcare industry. The research concludes that product approval regulations have a small influence on the internationalization process; instead establishing relationships with local key opinion leaders to create awareness and legitimacy was essential to successfully enter a new foreign market. A further key finding identified was that each market is characterized by different national praxis and contrasting views on patient treatment methods, which was recognized as a challenge among the case firms.

Environmental accounting, as a newly developed cross-field subject, has been received increasing attentions in recent years. With public awareness of corporate social responsibility and sustainability, corporate environmental performance also has been aroused among social public, stakeholders, and internal management. Environmental disclosure, as an effective link between corporate management and social responsibility, is becoming a valuable research topic.   One unsolved problem of the environmental disclosure is the corporate behavior of listed companies in terms of environmental reporting in the post environmental events period, from 2005 to 2009. Those corporation environmental events, exposed by media, include over pollution, over emissions and illegal environmental activities. According to legitimacy theory, negative social perception and “legitimacy gaps” of the community result from illegitimate corporate activities, like environmental events, and corporations are therefore been threatened in its existence. In this case, enhanced environmental disclosure in annual reports is supposed to be an appropriate way to eliminate threats for corporations and ameliorate negative social perceptions. It imply that corporations with lower level of environmental performance are required to have more environmental disclosure for sustainability.   Some prior studies provided evidences that in the period from 1980 to 2002, after some incidents, corporations involved in these incidents indicate a higher level of environmental disclosure in the year when the environmental incidents happened, which align with legitimacy theory. Furthermore, there were incongruence previous results of the relationships between environmental disclosure and firm size and industry characters. We aim to find that whether the corporation environmental disclosure is in a relation with firm size and industry characters or not. And we are to revisit the association between corporate environmental performance and environmental disclosure.   This study took the quantitative method statistical technology was used for analysis. In order to get the answer for the research question, four hypotheses were set in this research. Finally, firm size and industry characters have no significant relationship with the level of environmental disclosure. The results indicate that the level of environmental information disclosure in annual reports of 2008 is higher than those of 2005. However, environmental events could not be deemed as a determinant of environmental disclosure, and the results partially support the legitimacy theory. The quality of environmental disclosure of 21 sample companies did not improve significantly in the year when the environmental events happened, but only the environmental disclosure sample companies with environmental events which happened in the year of 2008 improved significantly, compared with the previous year.

<p>Three distinct chapters explore the individual-level dynamics of legitimacy judgments and support for leaders and their initiatives. Chapter 1 develops a theoretical framework for understanding the content of legitimacy judgments and the process by which those judgments develop and change over time. Chapter 2 explores the role of group orientation in moderating the impact of instrumental, relational, and moral concerns in determining support for leaders. Chapter 3 explores the role of power in moderating leaders' assumptions about the types of behaviors that will elicit support for followers.</p><p>In Chapter 1, I build on institutional, social psychological, and sociological theory to develop a theoretical framework that specifies both the content underlying judgments of the legitimacy of social entities and a model of the process by which these judgments develop and change over time. With respect to the content of legitimacy judgments, I argue that individual-level judgments of the legitimacy of social entities are based on perceptions and beliefs about the entity that fall along three key dimensions: instrumental, relational, and moral. With respect to the process by which legitimacy judgments develop and change over time, I specify three modes of the legitimacy judgment process (evaluative, passive, and socialization), and I explain which of these modes is likely to predominate as individuals move through the stages of the legitimacy judgment process. The model specifies the circumstances under which the legitimacy of existing institutions is likely to be either challenged or bolstered. I conclude by discussing the implications of this framework for advancing a more detailed understanding of the micro-level dynamics of critical areas of inquiry in organizational studies. </p><p>In Chapter 2, I present a series of three studies demonstrating that individuals' intrinsic or extrinsic orientation toward their group moderates their responsiveness to different types of behaviors and appeals, such that individuals who have an intrinsic orientation (such as high identifiers and individuals who feel a high level of group belongingness) are more responsive to moral behaviors and appeals, while individuals with an extrinsic orientation (such as low identifiers and individuals who feel a low level of group belongingness) are more responsive to instrumental behaviors and appeals.</p><p>In Chapter 3, four studies demonstrate that subjective feelings of social power impact leaders' assumptions about the bases of their legitimacy with followers, which in turn impacts leaders' decisions about what types of leadership behaviors and tactics to engage. Study 1 demonstrates that leaders who feel a high level of power within their group or organization perceive support from followers as stemming primarily from their instrumental rather than relational behaviors, while leaders who feel a low level of power perceive that the support they receive from followers stems primarily from their relational rather than instrumental behaviors. Study 2 is a vignette study in which individuals primed with high power report greater expectations of support in response to decisions made on instrumental rather than relational bases, while individuals primed with low power report greater expectations of support in response to decisions made on relational rather than on instrumental bases. Study 3 replicates this interaction and shows that the effect is mediated by leaders' assumptions about the types of behaviors that followers prefer. Study 4 demonstrates that leaders primed with power are more likely to engage in instrumental behaviors in their attempts to persuade followers, while individuals primed with low power are more likely to engage in relational behaviors in their attempts to persuade followers. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.</p><p>Chapter 4 describes a final study that integrates the findings from Chapters 2 and 3. Specifically, Chapter 4 demonstrates that there is a positive effect of leader power on support for the leader among low, but not high, identifying groups. The findings further indicate that this effect is mediated by followers' perceptions of the leader's instrumental behaviors. Implications, limitations, and future directions of the research are discussed.</p> / Dissertation

Human society in the 21st century, population pressures brought about by globalization, the unequal distribution of environmental hazards, and a variety of public issues become not by the traditional government alone; has been, non-governmental organization (NGO) in the global the role in a variety of topics, are the key to lead the relationship between state and society in the discussions of civil society and international governance, the NGO has become increasingly critical, even in order to achieve democracy, with human rights, a indicators. After 1978, the Communist Party power succession by designated has passed three generations. 2012, mainland China's power struggle with severe economic test can reveal the opportunity for Chinese mainland state machine transition is not yet known; But no matter how, recalling the moment in 2008, it was a in the north hosting the Olympic Games to the international community show the elements of national power, surprisingly actually first in the Southern earthquake relief shown. The Corporatism defined the mode of interdependence between the NGOs and the government is built on the concept of exchange, of which the most important connotation is the country's laws, institutions and regulations; the organization can not just exist with its own objectives and efficiency relevant professional space must comply with the external specification, which includes the cultural system, moral values. National units the role of classification screening system for the development of mainland China NGO, the NGO in the process of development, whether it can have more than "Legitimacy" is even more important.