TY - JOUR
T1 - Networks, Power, and the Effects of Legitimacy in Contentious Politics
AU - Schoon, Eric W.
AU - Joosse, Alexandra Pocek
AU - Milward, H. Brinton
N1 - Funding Information:
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0262-9959 Schoon Eric W. 1 Joosse Alexandra Pocek 2 Milward H. Brinton 3 1 The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA 2 William & Mary, Williamsburg, VA, USA 3 University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA Eric W. Schoon, Department of Sociology, The Ohio State University, 238 Townshend Hall, 1885 Neil Avenue Mall, Columbus, OH 43210, USA. Email: [email protected] 1 2020 0731121419896808 © The Author(s) 2020 2020 Pacific Sociological Association Legitimacy is widely theorized as shaping the dynamics of contentious politics, fostering support and stability for those involved while imposing behavioral constraints. Yet, empirical research reveals wide variation in how these effects are realized in practice. We contend that divergences in legitimacy’s effects are tied in fundamental ways to the relationship between actors engaged in contentious politics and their audience(s). We develop a framework that highlights three conditions shaping the effects of legitimacy—legitimacy type, network balance, and structural dependence—and use a comparative analysis of dyadic relationships of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, and Jemaah Islamiyah to illustrate how convergence and divergence in legitimacy’s effects are systematically structured by these conditions. Doing so advances scholarship on legitimacy in contentious politics by providing a basis for systematically comparing the effects of legitimacy across cases, situations, and historical contexts. legitimacy comparative analysis contentious politics Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) edited-state corrected-proof typesetter ts1 For their helpful comments and challenging critiques, we would like to thank Ronald Breiger, Aliza Luft, Andrew Martin, David Melamed, Corey Pech, Adam Slez, Vinnie Roscigno, and Edward Walker. This work has also benefited from feedback provided by the participants in the “From Disorder to Order” working group in the Political Legitimacy Profile Area at the University of Leiden and by participants in the 2016 meeting of the International Security and Arms Control (ISAC)-International Securities Studies Section (ISSS) in South Bend, Indiana. Declaration of Conflicting Interests The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. Funding The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This research was supported in part by the Kulturwissenschaftliches Kolleg/Institute for Advanced Studies at the University of Konstanz and by a seed grant from The Ohio State University Department of Sociology. ORCID iD Eric W. Schoon https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0262-9959
Funding Information:
For their helpful comments and challenging critiques, we would like to thank Ronald Breiger, Aliza Luft, Andrew Martin, David Melamed, Corey Pech, Adam Slez, Vinnie Roscigno, and Edward Walker. This work has also benefited from feedback provided by the participants in the ?From Disorder to Order? working group in the Political Legitimacy Profile Area at the University of Leiden and by participants in the 2016 meeting of the International Security and Arms Control (ISAC)-International Securities Studies Section (ISSS) in South Bend, Indiana. The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This research was supported in part by the Kulturwissenschaftliches Kolleg/Institute for Advanced Studies at the University of Konstanz and by a seed grant from The Ohio State University Department of Sociology.
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2020.
PY - 2020/8/1
Y1 - 2020/8/1
N2 - Legitimacy is widely theorized as shaping the dynamics of contentious politics, fostering support and stability for those involved while imposing behavioral constraints. Yet, empirical research reveals wide variation in how these effects are realized in practice. We contend that divergences in legitimacy’s effects are tied in fundamental ways to the relationship between actors engaged in contentious politics and their audience(s). We develop a framework that highlights three conditions shaping the effects of legitimacy—legitimacy type, network balance, and structural dependence—and use a comparative analysis of dyadic relationships of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, and Jemaah Islamiyah to illustrate how convergence and divergence in legitimacy’s effects are systematically structured by these conditions. Doing so advances scholarship on legitimacy in contentious politics by providing a basis for systematically comparing the effects of legitimacy across cases, situations, and historical contexts.
AB - Legitimacy is widely theorized as shaping the dynamics of contentious politics, fostering support and stability for those involved while imposing behavioral constraints. Yet, empirical research reveals wide variation in how these effects are realized in practice. We contend that divergences in legitimacy’s effects are tied in fundamental ways to the relationship between actors engaged in contentious politics and their audience(s). We develop a framework that highlights three conditions shaping the effects of legitimacy—legitimacy type, network balance, and structural dependence—and use a comparative analysis of dyadic relationships of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, and Jemaah Islamiyah to illustrate how convergence and divergence in legitimacy’s effects are systematically structured by these conditions. Doing so advances scholarship on legitimacy in contentious politics by providing a basis for systematically comparing the effects of legitimacy across cases, situations, and historical contexts.
KW - Jemaah Islamiyah (JI)
KW - Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)
KW - Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC)
KW - comparative analysis
KW - contentious politics
KW - legitimacy
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85077599887&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85077599887&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/0731121419896808
DO - 10.1177/0731121419896808
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85077599887
SN - 0731-1214
VL - 63
SP - 670
EP - 690
JO - Sociological Perspectives
JF - Sociological Perspectives
IS - 4
ER -