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Political Theory/ Political Discourse: Constructing Moral and Religious Legitimacy for Public Action
Unformatted Document Text:  M ELODRAMATIC D ISCOURSE AND T HE L EGITIMATION OF P OWER E LISABETH A NKER DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE U NIVERSITY OF C ALIFORNIA , B ERKELEY L IBANKER @ BERKELEY . EDU P RESENTED AT THE A MERICAN P OLITICAL S CIENCE A SSOCIATION , S EPTEMBER 2006 “We have a calling from beyond the stars to stand for freedom.” --President George W. Bush 1 Legitimation, American Style Scholars of American politics generally assume that the American state derives its legitimacy from the institutional structure and electoral process created by the Constitution. The conventional wisdom goes something like this: Born out of a declaration of independence, premised upon equality, and bolstered by an enumeration of royal abuses, the United States Constitution defined freedom as freedom from the state. Shaped by the foresight of the founding fathers, the Constitution limited the arbitrary exercise of state power. Its new concept of freedom was codified in America’s political system; with checks and balances, different branches of government, a bill of rights, and representative participation, the Constitution delimited a system that even now severely confines the power of the state, and continually protects the freedom of individuals. Within this system, federalism further institutionalizes the decentralization of state power, and the electoral system enables citizens to not only participate in, but jointly control, power’s exercise. This conventional wisdom is promulgated not only by American politics scholars, but by the majority of American citizens, and is continually rearticulated over time. While it is significantly deeper and richer than this brief sketch, it generally presupposes that state legitimacy depends upon the prescience of America’s founding documents, the legalized limits on state capacity, the juridical order’s strength to ensure equality and justice, the protections and rights accorded to citizens, and citizens’ authorship of political life through electoral responsiveness and accountability. Scholars often provide proof of America’s legitimacy from the world stage, in which the American state 1 Speech given at the Republican National Convention, September 2, 2004. 1

Authors: Anker, Elisabeth. and Scherer, Matthew.
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background image
M
ELODRAMATIC
D
ISCOURSE
AND
T
HE
L
EGITIMATION
OF
P
OWER
E
LISABETH
A
NKER
DEPARTMENT
OF
POLITICAL
SCIENCE
U
NIVERSITY
OF
C
ALIFORNIA
, B
ERKELEY
L
IBANKER
@
BERKELEY
.
EDU
P
RESENTED
AT
THE
A
MERICAN
P
OLITICAL
S
CIENCE
A
SSOCIATION
, S
EPTEMBER
2006
“We have a calling from beyond the stars to stand for freedom.”
--President George W. Bush
Legitimation, American Style
Scholars of American politics generally assume that the American state derives its
legitimacy from the institutional structure and electoral process created by the Constitution. The
conventional wisdom goes something like this: Born out of a declaration of independence, premised
upon equality, and bolstered by an enumeration of royal abuses, the United States Constitution
defined freedom as freedom from the state. Shaped by the foresight of the founding fathers, the
Constitution limited the arbitrary exercise of state power. Its new concept of freedom was codified
in America’s political system; with checks and balances, different branches of government, a bill of
rights, and representative participation, the Constitution delimited a system that even now severely
confines the power of the state, and continually protects the freedom of individuals. Within this
system, federalism further institutionalizes the decentralization of state power, and the electoral
system enables citizens to not only participate in, but jointly control, power’s exercise. This
conventional wisdom is promulgated not only by American politics scholars, but by the majority of
American citizens, and is continually rearticulated over time. While it is significantly deeper and
richer than this brief sketch, it generally presupposes that state legitimacy depends upon the
prescience of America’s founding documents, the legalized limits on state capacity, the juridical
order’s strength to ensure equality and justice, the protections and rights accorded to citizens, and
citizens’ authorship of political life through electoral responsiveness and accountability.
Scholars
often provide proof of America’s legitimacy from the world stage, in which the American state
1
Speech given at the Republican National Convention, September 2, 2004.
1


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