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POWER-HOLDER LEGITIMACY: THEORY AND EVIDENCE Justice Tankebe ([email protected] ) 4 th International Conference on Evidence Based Policing (Cambridge, 5 July 2011)

Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy

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Page 1: Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy

POWER-HOLDER LEGITIMACY:

THEORY AND EVIDENCE

Justice Tankebe ([email protected])

4th International Conference on Evidence Based Policing (Cambridge, 5 July 2011)

Page 2: Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy

Outline

• Conceptual Groundwork

• Correlates of Power-holder Legitimacy

• Concluding Thoughts

Page 3: Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy

The Return of a ‘Grand’ Concept

Trust

Confidence

Legitimacy

Page 4: Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy

To condemn something as illegitimate is, I think, implicitly to threaten defiance. Calling a decision illegitimate adds the suggestion that the decision is mistaken, or lawless, or immoral, in a way or to a degree that raises a question about whether it should not be obeyed’

(Strauss 2005: 1854)

Page 5: Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy

Police Legitimacy and Public Behaviour

• It encourages cooperation with the police (Sunshine & Tyler 2003).

• It facilitates acceptance of police decisions, and general compliance with the law (Tyler 1990).

• It generates a willingness to empower the police (Sunshine and Tyler 2003).

• Reduces reoffending, and support for vigilante violence (Paternoster et al 1997; Tankebe 2009).

Page 6: Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy

Tyler’s Model of ‘Process-Based Regulation’

Procedural elements

•quality of decision making

•quality of treatment

Process-based judgments

•procedural justice

•motive-based trust

Immediate decision

acceptance

Long-term decision

acceptance

Supportive values

(legitimacy)

General cooperation

•compliance

•cooperation

•empowerment

Source: Tyler (2003: 283.

Page 7: Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy

Herbert’s ‘Conflicting Pathways to Police Legitimacy’

• Subservience – Democratic • Separation

– Liberal order (human rights)– Professionalism

• Protection from citizen meddling • Need for unquestioned authority • Quest for prestige

• Generativity – Police understandings shaping situations – Deployment of moralistic frameworks (self-identity as

‘moral guardians’)

Page 8: Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy

Power-holder Legitimacy

The self-belief power-holders (e.g. police officers) have in their moral right to govern (Bottoms & Tankebe 2008)

People with power ‘must persuade themselves that their fates are deserved and therefore [morally] rightful (Kronman 1983).

Page 9: Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy

Rulers need to believe that the power they possess is morally justified, that they are servants of a larger collective goal or system of values surpassing mere determination to perpetuate themselves in power, that their exercise of power is not inescapably at odds with hallowed standards of morality.

(Dennis Wrong 1995: 103).

Page 10: Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy

Police Legitimacy Defined

Legitimacy is the recognition of the moral rightness of the police’s claim to exercise power.

It consists in justifying simultaneously police power and citizens’ obligation towards obedience.

Adapted from Coicaud, J-M (2002)

Page 11: Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy

WHAT FACTORS SHAPE CONFIDENCE IN POWER-

HOLDER LEGITIMACY?

Page 12: Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy

• Procedural Fairness

• Relational Social Capital (RSC)

• Performance

• Corruption

• Corruption reforms

Page 13: Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy

Data & Method• Sample of 181 officers in Accra (response

rate = 82%)

• Education: secondary school (80.1%); tertiary education (19.9%)

• Length of service = 15 years (mean)

• Gender = 29.3% female

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Findings

Model 1 Model 2 Model 3

ß (s.e) ß (s.e) ß (s.e)Individual VariablesGender .04 .10 .06 .09 .07 .08Education .01 .11 .04 .11 .04 .10Length of service -.15* .02 -.22** .02 -.22** -.07PerformanceEffectiveness --- --- .27** .07 .12* .07Corruption --- --- -.06 .10 -.05 .09Corruption reforms --- --- -.08 .05 -.08 .04Internal CohesionRelational Social Capital --- --- --- --- .13* .08Procedural Fairness --- --- --- --- .40*** .07Constant .10 .30 .36Adjusted R2 .01 .07 .28

N = 181; *p<0.05, **p<0.01, ***p<0.001

Page 15: Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy

CONCLUSION

Page 16: Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy

Does Power-holder Legitimacy Matter?

• Responsible exercise of authority

• Stable and effective exercise of authority

• A precondition for ‘external legitimacy’

• Organisational commitment; use of force?

Page 17: Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy

The problem of the narcissistic power-holder

Page 18: Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy

THANK YOU!

QUESTIONS?

Justice Tankebe ([email protected])

4th International Conference on Evidence Base Policing (Cambridge, 5 July 2011)