[I read the introduction and the afterword. Main part of the book seems to be a lit review, and survey and qualitative research in Chicago. Seminal and influential book when published in 1990, arguing against a narrow instrumental/deterrence approach and in favor of approach that harnesses intrinsic motivation and (procedural) fairness]
Why People Obey the Law by Tom R. Tyler
Subtitle in 1990 when first published: Procedural justice, legitimacy, and compliance.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/364888
Goal: to articulate and defend empirically an alternative vision of social order maintenance linked to gaining the consent and cooperation of the public with the law and legal authorities.
1️⃣ Legitimacy shapes compliance with the law
2️⃣ Legitimacy was not based upon instrumental judgments but rooted in procedural justice judgments
3️⃣ explored meaning procedural justice, making clear that respondents defined procedural justice in reference to noninstrumental issues
Instrumental and normative perspectives on why people follow the law.
instrumental (deterrence lit): people respond to changes in tangible, immediate incentives and penalties associated with following the law
This view is as old as Thucydides, who argued that "The strong do what they will, the weak endure what they must," and as recent as Mao Tse-Tung, who said "Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.'
Compliance from a normative perspective is concerned with the influence of what people regard as just and moral as opposed to what is in their self-interest
Normative commitment through personal morality means obeying a law because one feels the law is just;
normative commitment through legitimacy means obeying a law because one feels that the authority enforcing the law has the right to dictate behavior
Although both morality and legitimacy are normative, they are not identical, Leaders are especially interested in having legitimacy in the eyes of their followers, because legitimacy most effectively provides them with discretionary authority that they can use in governing.
The findings of Why People Obey the Law support the argument that it is important for authorities and rules to be consented to, rather than imposed via sanctions or incentives.
“Legitimacy is loyalty; it is a reservoir of goodwill that allows the institutions of government to go against what people may want at the moment without suffering debilitating consequences"
(Gibson 2004, 289, Overcoming apartheid).
Why People Obey the Law makes the argument that relationship between members of groups, organizations, and societies and the authorities and institutions which govern them need not be based upon an instrumental exchange of rewards or be a threat-based approach to social control
It is also possible to engage the values of the population, which leads to a self-regulatory stance toward governance, in which people voluntarily defer to authorities and institutions because they view doing so as part of the obligation they have to their leaders.
Oorspronkelijk getweet door Wilte Zijlstra (@wilte) op 1 december 2020.
wilte 