What is the principle of legitimacy? And why should you pay special attention to it if you’re a police officer, government worker, manager, or employer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The principle of legitimacy states that a government’s ability to govern is based on its perceived legitimacy. If the public perceives the government as illegitimate, it will rebel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Learn why the principle of legitimacy is so important and how it can dramatically lower crime rates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
There are two aspects of a powerful entity\u2019s power that actually make it less powerful: the limits of authority and the negative effects of the overuse of power.<\/strong> What Goliaths, people with overt power, tend to misunderstand about power is that it has limitations. The traditional hallmarks of power\u2014massive weapons, years of experience, society\u2019s blessing\u2014can only take you so far. The degree to which you are powerful depends, in part, on how much power your \u201csubjects\u201d are willing to give you. You need to be seen as legitimate. This is the principle of legitimacy. An authority figure\u2019s power over the rest of us is especially limited if we don\u2019t perceive him and his power as being \u201clegitimate.\u201d An authority\u2019s legitimacy is based on three things<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you\u2019re the one with the power, why does it matter what people think of you?<\/strong> According to the principle of legitimacy, people become defiant, rather than submissive, when they don\u2019t view the authority as legitimate. Authorities may make the rules, but they have trouble enforcing them without legitimacy. In fact, if you aren\u2019t \u201clegitimate\u201d and you exert your power, you may get the opposite of your intended effect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here’s an example of the principle of legitimacy used to great effect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Brownsville, in Brooklyn, is historically one of the most crime-ridden neighborhoods in New York City. In 2003, Joanne Jaffe became the head of the city\u2019s Housing Bureau and sought to use her power legitimately. Accordingly, she departed from the conventional approach to lowering the crime rate in Brownsville. Jaffe and her team created a program offering job, education, and medical assistance to Brownsville juveniles with a record, but warned them that if they continued to commit crimes, the team would make sure they stayed in jail, no matter how minor the crime. Jaffe also committed to getting to know the juveniles\u2019 families. She wasn\u2019t getting anywhere with this approach until a group of her officers bought a particularly antagonistic juvenile and his family a Thanksgiving turkey. Jaffe was touched, and asked the police commissioner for money to buy turkeys for all the families with juveniles in the program. When the families felt cared for and heard, they willingly opened their doors to the police. <\/strong>This is the power of the principle of legitimacy. After this success, Jaffe and her task force started playing basketball with their charges, taking them to dinner, and driving them to doctor appointments. They got involved in their charges\u2019 lives in ways that had nothing to do with the law. Jaffe got astounding results: Brownsville robberies decreased every year from 2006 to 2011, and robbery arrests of program members decreased from roughly 370 arrests (one year prior to starting the program) to roughly 20 arrests three years later. These were the results of Jaffe’s team following the three features of the principle of legitimacy. Use this example to think about ways you can apply the principle of legitimacy in your own life. Remember, you only have as much power as those subservient to you give you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What is the principle of legitimacy? And why should you pay special attention to it if you’re a police officer, government worker, manager, or employer? The principle of legitimacy states that a government’s ability to govern is based on its perceived legitimacy. If the public perceives the government as illegitimate, it will rebel. Learn why the principle of legitimacy is so important and how it can dramatically lower crime rates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1621,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,14,24],"tags":[47],"class_list":["post-1676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ethics","category-management","category-society","tag-david-and-goliath","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe Principle of Legitimacy<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\nAn Example of the <\/strong>Principle of Legitimacy: Crime Rates in Brownsville<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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<\/p>\n\n\n\nWhat Made Jaffe\u2019s Approach legitimate<\/em>? Why Did It Work?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n