Conceptualizing the Relationship Between Persuasion and Legitimacy: Official Framing in the Case of the Chinese Communis
- PDF / 275,321 Bytes
- 18 Pages / 439.37 x 666.142 pts Page_size
- 58 Downloads / 214 Views
Conceptualizing the Relationship Between Persuasion and Legitimacy: Official Framing in the Case of the Chinese Communist Party Maria Bondes & Sandra Heep
Published online: 26 October 2013 # Journal of Chinese Political Science/Association of Chinese Political Studies 2013
Abstract In the debate on authoritarian resilience, the importance of persuasion to regime legitimacy has been widely acknowledged, yet a conceptual framework explaining the role of persuasion is still lacking. Against this backdrop, we argue that the framing perspective (Benford and Snow 1988) provides a useful basis for such a framework. Drawing on Beetham’s (1991) legitimacy model, we contend that the ruling elites in authoritarian regimes propagate official frames in a continuous effort to reproduce the belief of the populace in the elites’ leadership qualities and their determination to serve the common interest. In the empirical part of our paper we look at the case of China, where the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has in recent years reemphasized persuasion as a means of reproducing legitimacy. We then apply our theory in an analysis of the conceptual shifts in the CCP’s frames and ideology, as propagated under its secretary general, Hu Jintao. Keywords Legitimacy . Persuasion . Ideology . Frame Analysis . China In the debate on authoritarian resilience, the importance of persuasion to a regime’s legitimacy has been widely acknowledged in recent years [18, 21, 24]. However, the relationship between persuasion and legitimacy has not been sufficiently explained. This paper aims to fill this research gap by introducing a framing perspective into the study of political legitimacy. Originally developed in social movement theory [27], the framing perspective has only rarely been applied to the persuasion efforts of state agencies [5, 12]. While it has been suggested that frames promoted by state actors aim at reproducing legitimacy [22, 23], this idea has not been spelled out in theoretical terms. M. Bondes (*) Institute of Asian Studies, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies, Rothenbaumchaussee 32, 20148 Hamburg, Germany e-mail: [email protected] S. Heep Institute of Chinese Studies, Freiburg University, Werthmannstraße 12, 79098 Freiburg, Germany e-mail: [email protected]
318
M. Bondes, S. Heep
Drawing on David Beetham’s theory of legitimacy [1], this paper argues that official frames aim at strengthening regime legitimacy by influencing the people’s core beliefs concerning the political elites, i.e. by reproducing the people’s belief in the elites’ leadership qualities and their determination to serve the common interest. It contends that official framing takes place within a permanent feedback loop in which the authorities react to perceived legitimacy deficits by disseminating frames targeted at assuaging popular discontent. In addition, it argues that official frames promote ideological frameworks that guide the interpretation of concrete policies and events and integrate them into a big pictur
Data Loading...
