10.1111/j.1747-4469.2008.00128.x">
 

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

Fall 2008

Rights

In Copyright

Abstract

This article explores the role of legality in conceptions of state and society among bureaucrats in the Taipei, Taiwan city government. When administrators confront the global arena, the existence of law emblematizes modernity and the ability to participate in the international system. In interactions among administrators, law is laden with impossible ideals and fraught with assumptions of hypocrisy. In dealings with people outside the government, legality often signals the breakdown of other, more valuable social norms. Far from legitimating administrative action, legality itself is legitimated by reference to the same values as other social action: it is held up to an ideal of consensus and cultural coherence and judged by its ability to fulfill obligations and nurture relationships. Law does not hegemonically structure administrators’ conceptions of state and society. Rather, it defines one aspect of governance at the margins of legitimacy, dependent on justification through other ethical norms.

Publication Title

Law & Social Inquiry: Journal of the American Bar Foundation

First Page

925

Last Page

954

Required Text

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Anya Bernstein, The Social Life of Regulation in Taipei City Hall: The Role of Legality in the Administrative Bureaucracy, 33 Law & Social Inquiry 925 (2008), which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747-4469.2008.00128.x. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions.

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