legitimation moves through time

Yesterday, while I was giving my lecture at the Latin American E-Gov Summit, I noticed that the legitimation-question needs to be worked out more explicitly.

I was arguing that in network society the move from institutional legitimation to results-oriented legitimation changes our conception of our social worlds as much as the 16th Century move from transcendental to immanent-institutional legitimation. And these macro-historical changes in the argumentative patterns explaining collectivity allow us to adapt our policy recommendations and political strategies.

That is quite a mouthful and needs to be disentangled. The following chart might help to clarify, what I was arguing:

Transcendent

(-1600)

Immanent-institutional

(-2000)

Results-oriented

(2000+)

Foundation

God

The State

The Result

Argument

God said so.

At some point in the past, we decided upon a common rule book/institution.

I see and accept the result.

Metaphor

Body

Contract

Network

It is good at:

stability

mobility

Nature:

One-with-nature

Controlling nature

de-naturalized, disembodied

Tension cannot be thought.

Tension between individual and collective.

Power

government

Consensus of stakeholders

The people

citizens

stakeholders

It is important to realize that even though the concepts are exclusive in their thrust, they are not exclusive in our social worlds. Echos of transcendental legitimation still are part of our legitimation cultures (political families, cancer of society, heads of state), institutional legitimation explains most of our governance structure and our passports. However, in government, public administration, the private sector, and civil society we can observe the move to results-oriented legitimation.

About Philipp

Philipp Müller works in the IT industry and is academic dean of the SMBS. Author of "Machiavelli.net". Proud father of three amazing children. The views expressed in this blog are his own.

03. October 2006 by Philipp
Categories: Blog | 2 comments

Comments (2)

  1. Reva Doiss says October 17, 2006 at 11:19 pm

    Excellent lecture you gave us on Seminario EGAP about this topic.

    I think we still have problems imaging the big picture of the network-society change, but as you say, it is something we are already living with and is about time everything changes in that way.

    The biggest problem with Mexico and many other countries is that we always wait until everything have changed and THEN we start thinking how to live in that new world.

    Good chart. It is very ilustrating

  2. reva_doiss@anonymous.disqus.net'
    Reva Doiss says October 17, 2006 at 11:19 pm

    Excellent lecture you gave us on Seminario EGAP about this topic. I think we still have problems imaging the big picture of the network-society change, but as you say, it is something we are already living with and is about time everything changes in that way. The biggest problem with Mexico and many other countries is that we always wait until everything have changed and THEN we start thinking how to live in that new world. Good chart. It is very ilustrating