LIST OF PANELS

Why do people obey the law? Why are they willing to accept policy changes? How can public institutions get them to cooperate to ensure smooth policy implementation? These questions are of paramount importance if we want to increase policy effectiveness. Higher trust may contribute to more effective institutional performance and easier policy implementation. If people believe that laws serve the common good, and that the judicial system is both fair and effective, then they are more willing to cooperate with policy implementing institutions. As trust in public institutions depends on their perceived legitimacy, a crucial issue is whether citizens consider that these institutions rightly have authority over them. A number of studies about the willingness to cooperate with the police and tax authorities, compliance with health regulations during an epidemic, or the support of welfare reforms have demonstrated that a strong correlate of normative legitimacy of a public institution is procedural fairness understood as a signal of commitment to respect public interest by officials and decision-makers. The panel is inviting papers that address trust, legitimacy and policy effectiveness. What are the roots of trust and legitimacy in a cross-cultural comparative perspective? How are the decisions of political elites and legitimacy of institutions shaping policy effectiveness and conversely, what is the impact of policy outcomes on legitimacy? What kind of proxies can be used to measure the cultivation of legitimacy, i.e. policy efforts to sustain the legitimacy of policies and institutions in the long run? As available studies concentrate on some policy fields (compliance with the law or cooperation with the police), some geographical areas (Western Europe and the US), and some methodological approaches (attitudinal surveys), papers investigating other policy areas, covering different regions and applying other, innovative research methods are especially welcome.

Why do people obey the law? Why are they willing to accept policy changes? How can public institutions get them to cooperate to ensure smooth policy implementation? These and similar questions are of paramount importance if we want to increase policy effectiveness. Higher trust may contribute to more effective institutional performance and easier policy implementation. For instance, Tom Tyler argues that people do not obey the law because they fear sanctions, but because they put trust in it. More specifically, if people believe that laws serve the common good, and that the judicial system is both fair and effective, then they are more willing to obey the law. This approach indeed implies the crucial role of legitimacy, that is, people’s perception as to whether institutions and policies rightly have authority over them. Thus for many researchers the real issue is the basis of perceived legitimacy of public institutions and policies. A number of studies have demonstrated that trust in institutions and normative legitimacy are strong predictors of cooperation with institutions. Trust and legitimacy may make people more willing to defer to the law and to the decisions of legal authorities such as the police and the courts. Without trust, people are less likely to support governmental development and welfare policy interventions and legitimacy is particularly important when policy reforms are on the agenda. Legitimacy can increase citizen support of war efforts and compliance with health regulations during an epidemic. Tax compliance was found to be less dependent on the severity of sanctions on tax evasion and more on the trusting attitudes of people towards the tax authority. This approach to the problématique of legitimacy and trust is not normative in its intentions. However, it does take into account that people use normative, value-driven criteria when forming evaluative attitudes towards institutions. Research on trust and legitimacy stresses the significance of procedural fairness in shaping people attitudes towards the government and institutions. A possible explanation is that abiding to the principles of procedural fairness by those in power is a signal of commitment to public interest. The panel is inviting papers that address trust, legitimacy and policy effectiveness. An intriguing question is whether procedural fairness plays the same role in building legitimacy across political cultures. What are the roots of trust and legitimacy in a comparative perspective? How is the legitimacy of institutions and policies shaping policy effectiveness and conversely, what is the impact of policy outcomes on trust and legitimacy? What kind of proxies can be used to measure the cultivation of legitimacy, i.e. policy efforts to sustain the legitimacy of policies and institutions in the long run? While there is a growing number of studies in the topic, some policy areas (compliance with the law or cooperation with the police), some geographical areas (Western Europe and the US), and some methodological approaches (attitudinal surveys) seem to be overrepresented. Therefore studies investigating other policy areas, covering different regions and applying other, innovative research methods are especially welcome.