The role of legitimacy in good governance

Institute of Public Administration and Politics presents the final conference celebrating the completion of “Does legitimacy make a difference?” project at the University of Iceland (supported by the Icelandic Research Fund).

At a time when trust in government is claimed to be declining in many countries’ legitimacy - the validity of claims to power - is clearly a relevant and important topic. Legitimacy is widely assumed to be a prerequisite for good governance. Non-legitimate rule, after all, often based on tyranny and arbitrary use of power, may cause conflict and civil disobedience, and eventually state failure. But how states earn legitimacy is less understood. The way legitimacy affects citizen behaviour is also and under-researched topic. We aim to shed light on these topics by critically examining the tenets of legitimacy theory considering empirical research.

The issues involved are central topics in all the social sciences and humanities. They are relevant to a theoretically oriented audience  as well as practitioners. Policy makers, managers and local administrators are among the groups which may find the discussion of particular interest.

Introductory lectures:
Peter Esaiasson, Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Gothenburg: Is winning everything? On the importance of procedural fairness for citizens’ willingness to accept unwelcome authoritative decisions.

Gunnar Helgi Kristinsson, Professor, Faculty of Political Science, University of Iceland: How the study of legitimacy undermines contractarian approaches to the state

Panel discussants:
Carl Dahlström, Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Gothenburg, Gissur Ó. Erlingsson, Professor, Department of Culture and Society, Linköping University, Monika Bauhr, Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Gothenburg, Guðbjörg Andrea Jónsdóttir, Director, Social Science Research Institute, University of Iceland and Eva H. Önnudóttir, Professor, Faculty of Political Science, University of Iceland.

Reception at 17.30 at Oddi.