Discursive Construction of Legitimation: Understanding Authority and Ideology

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By Jalil Naser Hilu
Supervised by Prf. Ahmed Qadouri Abed (Ph.D)
 
Definition
General principles of legitimation
Major categories of legitimation
Authorization
Role model authority
Moral evaluation
Rationalization
Mythopoesis
Multimodal Legitimation
Legitimation and Context
 
“Every system of authority attempts to establish and
to cultivate the belief in its legitimacy,” Max Weber
wrote.
According to Van Leeuwen, legitimation framework
analyses the ways in which “discourses construct
legitimation for social practices in public
communications as well as in everyday interaction”
(2007, 91).
 
In his 
Ideology
 (1998), van Dijk defines legitimation in
"a discourse analytical framework [that] is obviously a
social (and political ) act and …is typically
accomplished by 
text
text
 
 
or 
talk
talk
" (p.255).
 
Chilton says that legitimation is “usually oriented
to the self, includes positive self-presentation,
manifesting itself in acts of self-praise, self-
apology, self-explanation, self[-]justification, self-
identification as a source of authority, reason,
vision and sanity, where the self is either an
individual or the group with which an individual
identifies or wishes to identify” (Chilton 2004, 47).
 
May be a complex 
ongoing
ongoing
 
 
discursive practice
involving a set of interrelated discourses
 accomplished in 
institutional
institutional
 
 
contexts
a discourse that 
justifies
justifies
 
 
'official' actions in
terms of the 
rights
rights
 
 
and 
duties
duties
, politically,
socially or legally associated with that role or
position (of its members)
 presupposes 
norms
norms
 
 
and 
values
values
has a 
top-down 
top-down 
direction
(Van Dijk 1998,255-57)
 
Group ideologies may thus be declared to
be 'common sense', or principles that should
be followed by all social members, also
those of other groups…[..] Persuasion and
manipulation may thus be combined with
legitimation as soon as one group tries to
impose its ideology on another group….
Van Dijk 1998,258)
 
1-Authorization
1-Authorization
 
 
: by reference to the authority
 
2- 
Moral evaluation
Moral evaluation
: by reference to values
 
3- 
Rationalization
Rationalization
: by reference to the goals
and uses of institutionalized social action
 
4- 
Mythopoesis
Mythopoesis
: through narratives whose
outcomes reward legitimate actions and
punish non-legitimate actions
 
1- Personal authority
2- Expert authority
3- Role Model authority
4- Impersonal authority
5- The authority of tradition
6- The authority of conformity
 
legitimate authority is vested in 
people
people
because of their 
status or role
status or role
 in a particular
institution, e.g., parents and teacher in the
case of children.
 
Personal authority legitimation typically
takes the form of a 
“verbal process
“verbal process
” clause
(Halliday, 1985: 129) in which the “projected
clause,” the authority’s utterance, contains
some form of 
obligation modality
obligation modality
:
- Joan sat down. Because the teacher said
they had to.
 
legitimacy is provided by 
expertise
expertise
 
 
rather
than status, by 
mentioning credentials
mentioning credentials
 or
just 
add their names
add their names
, if known.
expert legitimation takes the form of “
verbal
verbal
process
process
 clauses” or “
mental
mental
 
 
process
process
 
 
clauses”
 
 
Ex. 
Some experts say it is best to kiss the
child, not look back and go.
Ex. 
Dr. Juan believes it may be a good idea
to spend some time with t
 
people follow the example of 
role models 
role models 
or
opinion leaders
opinion leaders
. The role models may be
members
members
 
 
of a peer group or media celebrities
imitated from afar, and the mere fact that
these role models 
adopt
adopt
 
 
a certain kind of
behavior, or 
believe
believe
 
 
certain things, is enough
to legitimize the actions of their followers.
 
The wise teacher finds out the correct way
to pronounce the child’s name.
Experienced teachers involve the whole
class in supporting the newcomer.
 
the impersonal authority of 
laws
laws
, 
rules
rules
, and 
regulations
regulations
.
Impersonal authorities can be the 
subject
subject
 
 
of 
verbal
verbal
 
 
process
clauses just as readily as can personal authorities (“The
rules state . . .”; “The law says . . .”)
the presence of 
nouns
nouns
 
 
such as “policy,” “regulation,”
“rule,” “law,” etc., or their cognate 
adjectives
adjectives
 
 
and 
adverbs
adverbs
(e.g., “compulsory,” “mandatory,” “obligatory”)
 
Ex. 
It is the policy in her area to admit children termly
after their fifth birthday.
 
Ex. 
Playtime is usually a compulsory break in the program.
 
key words like “
tradition
tradition
,” “
practice
practice
,”
custom
custom
,” “
habit
habit
 
 
 
Ex. 
Ex. 
It was the practice for children in infant
It was the practice for children in infant
schools to be given free milk daily.
schools to be given free milk daily.
 
The implicit message is, “everybody 
else
else
 
 
is
doing it, and so should you” or “
most
most
 
 
people
are doing it, and so should you.”
 Sometimes, conformity legitimation takes
the form of an 
explicit
explicit
 
 
comparison
comparison
, 
high
high
frequency modality, statistical tips
frequency modality, statistical tips
 
Ex. 
Just
 as Uncle Jack and Uncle Ned, Auntie
Mary and Mummy had done, when they
were children.
Ex. 
Statistically
 proved, 
many
 schools now
adopt the same technique.
 
Moral evaluation legitimation is based on
values
values
, 
rather
rather
 
 
than imposed by some kind of
authority without further justification.
 
moral evaluation is linked to 
specific
specific
discourses
discourses
 of moral value.
However, these discourses are not made
explicit
explicit
 
 
and 
debatable
debatable
.
 by means of 
adjectives
adjectives
 
 
such as ‘good’ ,
‘bad’ “healthy,” “normal,” “natural,”
“useful,” and so on.
 
1- Evaluation
2- Abstraction
3- Analogies (positive or negative comparison)
 
Evaluative 
adjectives
adjectives
 
 
play a key role in moral
evaluation legitimation.
for instance, in the case of favored
advertising
advertising
 
 
adjectives such as “
green
green
,”
crisp
crisp
,” “
cool
cool
,” “
golden
golden
.”
 Also ‘
natural
natural
” , ‘
normal
normal
’,
Adjectives describing  ‘
change of time
change of time
 
 It is only natural that the 
first
 days of school
are 
upsetting
.
 
referring to 
practices
practices
 
 
(or to one or more of
their component actions or reactions) in
abstract ways
abstract ways
 that “moralize” them by
distilling from them a quality that links them
to discourses of moral values.
Instead of “
the child goes to school for the
first time
,” we might say “
the child takes up
the child takes up
independence
independence
,” so that the practice of
schooling is legitimized in terms of a
discourse of “independence.”
 
Comparisons
Comparisons
 
 
in discourse almost always have a
legitimating or delegitimating function.
Sometimes, the comparison is 
explicit
explicit
 
 
or
implicit
implicit
.
the positive or negative values which, in the
given sociocultural context, are attached to that
other activity are then transferred to the
original activity.
 An activity that belongs to one social practice is
described by a term which, literally, refers to an
activity belonging to another social practice
Like an adult starting in a new job . . . the child
will be worried.
 
Two
Two
 
 
main types of rationality:
1- 
Instrumental rationality 
Instrumental rationality 
legitimizes
practices by reference to their 
goals
goals
, 
uses
uses
,
and 
effects
effects
.
 
2- 
Theoretical rationality 
Theoretical rationality 
legitimizes practices
by reference to a 
natural order of things
natural order of things
, but
much more 
explicitly
explicitly
 
 
than the kinds of
naturalization examined earlier.
 
Like legitimations, 
purposes
purposes
 
 
are constructed in
discourse in order to explain 
why
why
 
 
social
practices exist, and 
why
why
 
 
they take the forms
they do.
 
Expressions like “
it is useful,” “it is effective
it is useful,” “it is effective
,”
and so on are themselves legitimating.
 
 
General
General
 
 
vs 
particular
particular
 
 
purpose legitimizing:
 
 
The following strategies were employed to
make the introduction to PE more smooth.
 
 
 
purposes are constructed as “in 
people
people
,” 
as
conscious
conscious
 
 
or 
unconscious
unconscious
 
 
motives, aims,
intentions, goals, etc.
This requires (a) that the 
agency
agency
 
 
of the
purposeful actor is 
explicitly
explicitly
 
 
expressed
expressed
, and (b)
that the purposeful action and the purpose have
the 
same
same
 
agent
agent
 
 
or, if the purpose is a 
state
state
, that
the person to whom that state is attributed is
also the agent of the purposeful action.
 
Your child may respond by spending hours
happily entertaining herself drawing while she
develops her visual, creative and motor skills.
 
 
In the case of 
means orientation, the purpose is
constructed as “in the 
action
action
,” 
and the action as
a means to an end.
 
 Formal group time is a powerful mechanism for
social control.
A number of subcategories are described in Van
Leeuwen (2000a):
1-the category of 
use
use
, (used to, used for)
2-the 
potential
potential
 of specific actions for 
serving
specific 
purposes and uses (“allow,” “promote,”
“help,” “teach,” “build,” “facilitate)
3- 
effect
effect
 
 
purposes ( to learn, to help, to control)
 
Legitimation is founded on some kind of
truth
truth
, on “the way things are.”
 
Theoretical rationalization is therefore
closely related to the category of
naturalization
naturalization
, but by 
explicit
explicit
representations
representations
 of “the way things are.”
 
1- definition
2- explanation
3- prediction
 
The activity is defined in terms of 
another
,
moralized
moralized
 
 
activity.
both activities must be 
objectivated
objectivated
 
 
and
generalized
generalized
, and the link between them must
either be 
attributive
attributive
 
 
(“is,” “constitutes,”
etc.) or 
significative
significative
 
 
(“means,” “signals,”
“symbolizes,”  ‘  necessary ‘,etc.).
 
Transition 
is
 a necessary stage in the young
child’s experience.
School 
signals
 that her children are growing
up.
 
one or more of the actors 
involved
involved
 
 
in the
practice.
Explanations describe 
general attributes
general attributes
 or
habitual activities of the categories of actors
in question.
 
Parents use the same route to school each
day because Small children thrive on
routine.
 
 
they are meant to be based not on authority,
but on expertise, and they can therefore be
denied by contrary experience, at least in
principle.
 
Don’t worry if you or your child cries. It won’t
Don’t worry if you or your child cries. It won’t
last long.
last long.
 
Legitimation can also be achieved through
storytelling
storytelling
. In 
moral tales, protagonists  
are
rewarded for engaging in legitimate social
practices or restoring the legitimate order.
 
No wonder there had been so many voices
cheering her on. The whole family had come
with Daddy to see Mary Kate win her first race.
 
Cautionary tales, on the other hand, convey
what will happen if you 
do not conform 
do not conform 
to the
to the
norms
norms
 of social practices. Their protagonists
engage in deviant activities that lead to unhappy
endings.
 
 
Stories may also use 
symbolic
symbolic
 
 
actions,
specific
specific
 actions that can nevertheless
represent more than one domain of
institutionalized social practice and so
provide a “mythical model of social action”
 
Instances of delegitimization  can be seen in
a mythical action
 
Some forms of legitimation can also be expressed
visually, or even musically. Stories, for instance,
can be told visually, in the form of comic strips,
movies, and games.
Role models can be shown as engaged in actions
that need legitimation.
Moral evaluations can be connoted visually or
represented by visual symbols.
 
These are the same folks that came and 
killed
about 3,000 of our citizens
.
1 
(Bush, 11 January
2007) 
Emotions
On 
September 11 2001, 19 men hijacked four
airplanes 
and used them to murder nearly 
3,000
people
. (Obama, 1 December 2009) 
Fear
And so 
our commanders 
looked at the plan and
said
, Mr President, it’s not going to work until –
unless we support – provide more troops. And so
last night I told the country that I’ve committed
an additional – a little over 20,000 more troops.
(Bush, 11 January 2007) 
Expertise
 
Your Government has in its possession another document
made in Germany by Hitler’s government. It is a
detailed plan … which they are ready to impose a little
later on a dominated world – if Hitler wins. It is a 
plan
to abolish all existing religions 
… The 
property of all
churches will be seized 
by the Reich and its puppets.
The cross and all other 
symbols of religion are to be
forbidden 
… In the place of the churches of our
civilization, there 
is to be set up an international Nazi
church 
… In the place of the Bible, the 
words of Mein
Kampf will be imposed and enforced as Holy Writ
. And
in 
place of the cross of Christ will be put two symbols
– the swastika and the naked sword
. A 
god of blood
and iron will take the place of the God of love and
mercy
. (FDR, 1941a)
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Systems of authority aim to establish legitimacy through discourses. Legitimation involves self-orientation, justification, and the imposition of ideologies. This practice encompasses various principles and categories such as moral evaluation, rationalization, and multimodal approaches, shaping social practices and interactions.

  • Legitimation
  • Discourse Analysis
  • Authority
  • Ideology

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  1. THE DISCURSIVE CONSTRUCTION OF LEGITIMATION By Jalil Naser Hilu Supervised by Prf. Ahmed Qadouri Abed (Ph.D)

  2. OUTLINE Definition General principles of legitimation Major categories of legitimation Authorization Role model authority Moral evaluation Rationalization Mythopoesis Multimodal Legitimation Legitimation and Context

  3. DEFINITION Every system of authority attempts to establish and to cultivate the belief in its legitimacy, Max Weber wrote. According to Van Leeuwen, legitimation framework analyses the ways in which discourses construct legitimation for social practices in public communications as well as in everyday interaction (2007, 91). In his Ideology (1998), van Dijk defines legitimation in "a discourse analytical framework [that] is obviously a social (and political ) act and is typically accomplished by text or talk" (p.255).

  4. DEFINITION Chilton says that legitimation is usually oriented to the self, includes positive self-presentation, manifesting itself in acts of self-praise, self- apology, self-explanation, self[-]justification, self- identification as a source of authority, reason, vision and sanity, where the self is either an individual or the group with which an individual identifies or wishes to identify (Chilton 2004, 47).

  5. GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF LEGITIMATION May be a complex ongoing discursive practice involving a set of interrelated discourses accomplished in institutional contexts a discourse that justifies 'official' actions in terms of the rights and duties, politically, socially or legally associated with that role or position (of its members) presupposes norms and values has a top-down direction (Van Dijk 1998,255-57)

  6. LEGITIMATION AND IDEOLOGY Group ideologies may thus be declared to be 'common sense', or principles that should be followed by all social members, also those of other groups [..] Persuasion and manipulation may thus be combined with legitimation as soon as one group tries to impose its ideology on another group . Van Dijk 1998,258)

  7. MAJOR CATEGORIES OF LEGITIMATION 1-Authorization : by reference to the authority 2- Moral evaluation: by reference to values 3- Rationalization: by reference to the goals and uses of institutionalized social action 4- Mythopoesis: through narratives whose outcomes reward legitimate actions and punish non-legitimate actions

  8. TYPE OF AUTHORIZATION 1- Personal authority 2- Expert authority 3- Role Model authority 4- Impersonal authority 5- The authority of tradition 6- The authority of conformity

  9. PERSONAL AUTHORITY legitimate authority is vested in people because of their status or role in a particular institution, e.g., parents and teacher in the case of children. Personal authority legitimation typically takes the form of a verbal process clause (Halliday, 1985: 129) in which the projected clause, the authority s utterance, contains some form of obligation modality: - Joan sat down. Because the teacher said they had to.

  10. EXPERT AUTHORITY legitimacy is provided by expertise rather than status, by mentioning credentials or just add their names, if known. expert legitimation takes the form of verbal process clauses or mental process clauses Ex. Some experts say it is best to kiss the child, not look back and go. Ex. Dr. Juan believes it may be a good idea to spend some time with t

  11. ROLE MODEL AUTHORITY people follow the example of role models or opinion leaders. The role models may be members of a peer group or media celebrities imitated from afar, and the mere fact that these role models adopt a certain kind of behavior, or believe certain things, is enough to legitimize the actions of their followers. The wise teacher finds out the correct way to pronounce the child s name. Experienced teachers involve the whole class in supporting the newcomer.

  12. IMPERSONAL AUTHORITY the impersonal authority of laws, rules, and regulations. Impersonal authorities can be the subject of verbal process clauses just as readily as can personal authorities ( The rules state . . . ; The law says . . . ) the presence of nouns such as policy, regulation, rule, law, etc., or their cognate adjectives and adverbs (e.g., compulsory, mandatory, obligatory ) Ex. It is the policy in her area to admit children termly after their fifth birthday. Ex. Playtime is usually a compulsory break in the program.

  13. THE AUTHORITY OF TRADITION key words like tradition, practice, custom, habit Ex. It was the practice for children in infant schools to be given free milk daily.

  14. THE AUTHORITY OF CONFORMITY The implicit message is, everybody else is doing it, and so should you or most people are doing it, and so should you. Sometimes, conformity legitimation takes the form of an explicit comparison, high frequency modality, statistical tips Ex. Just as Uncle Jack and Uncle Ned, Auntie Mary and Mummy had done, when they were children. Ex. Statistically proved, many schools now adopt the same technique.

  15. MORAL EVALUATION Moral evaluation legitimation is based on values, rather than imposed by some kind of authority without further justification. moral evaluation is linked to specific discourses of moral value. However, these discourses are not made explicit and debatable. by means of adjectives such as good , bad healthy, normal, natural, useful, and so on.

  16. TYPES OF MORAL EVALUATION 1- Evaluation 2- Abstraction 3- Analogies (positive or negative comparison)

  17. EVALUATION Evaluative adjectives play a key role in moral evaluation legitimation. for instance, in the case of favored advertising adjectives such as green, crisp, cool, golden. Also natural , normal , Adjectives describing change of time It is only natural that the first days of school are upsetting.

  18. ABSTRACTION referring to practices (or to one or more of their component actions or reactions) in abstract ways that moralize them by distilling from them a quality that links them to discourses of moral values. Instead of the child goes to school for the first time, we might say the child takes up independence, so that the practice of schooling is legitimized in terms of a discourse of independence.

  19. ANALOGIES Comparisons in discourse almost always have a legitimating or delegitimating function. Sometimes, the comparison is explicit or implicit. the positive or negative values which, in the given sociocultural context, are attached to that other activity are then transferred to the original activity. An activity that belongs to one social practice is described by a term which, literally, refers to an activity belonging to another social practice Like an adult starting in a new job . . . the child will be worried.

  20. RATIONALIZATION Two main types of rationality: 1- Instrumental rationality legitimizes practices by reference to their goals, uses, and effects. 2- Theoretical rationality legitimizes practices by reference to a natural order of things, but much more explicitly than the kinds of naturalization examined earlier.

  21. INSTRUMENTAL RATIONALITY Like legitimations, purposes are constructed in discourse in order to explain why social practices exist, and why they take the forms they do. Expressions like it is useful, it is effective, and so on are themselves legitimating.

  22. General vs particular purpose legitimizing: The following strategies were employed to make the introduction to PE more smooth.

  23. GOAL ORIENTATION PURPOSES VS MEANS ORIENTATION PURPOSES

  24. GOAL ORIENTATION purposes are constructed as in people, as conscious or unconscious motives, aims, intentions, goals, etc. This requires (a) that the agency of the purposeful actor is explicitly expressed, and (b) that the purposeful action and the purpose have the same agent or, if the purpose is a state, that the person to whom that state is attributed is also the agent of the purposeful action. Your child may respond by spending hours happily entertaining herself drawing while she develops her visual, creative and motor skills.

  25. MEANS ORIENTATION In the case of means orientation, the purpose is constructed as in the action, and the action as a means to an end. Formal group time is a powerful mechanism for social control. A number of subcategories are described in Van Leeuwen (2000a): 1-the category of use, (used to, used for) 2-the potential of specific actions for serving specific purposes and uses ( allow, promote, help, teach, build, facilitate) 3- effect purposes ( to learn, to help, to control)

  26. THEORETICAL RATIONALIZATION Legitimation is founded on some kind of truth, on the way things are. Theoretical rationalization is therefore closely related to the category of naturalization, but by explicit representations of the way things are.

  27. FORMS OF THEORETICAL RATIONALIZATION 1- definition 2- explanation 3- prediction

  28. DEFINITION The activity is defined in terms of another, moralized activity. both activities must be objectivated and generalized, and the link between them must either be attributive ( is, constitutes, etc.) or significative ( means, signals, symbolizes, necessary ,etc.). Transition is a necessary stage in the young child s experience. School signals that her children are growing up.

  29. EXPLANATION one or more of the actors involved in the practice. Explanations describe general attributes or habitual activities of the categories of actors in question. Parents use the same route to school each day because Small children thrive on routine.

  30. PREDICTION they are meant to be based not on authority, but on expertise, and they can therefore be denied by contrary experience, at least in principle. Don t worry if you or your child cries. It won t last long.

  31. MYTHOPOESIS Legitimation can also be achieved through storytelling. In moral tales, protagonists are rewarded for engaging in legitimate social practices or restoring the legitimate order. No wonder there had been so many voices cheering her on. The whole family had come with Daddy to see Mary Kate win her first race. Cautionary tales, on the other hand, convey what will happen if you do not conform to the norms of social practices. Their protagonists engage in deviant activities that lead to unhappy endings.

  32. Stories may also use symbolic actions, specific actions that can nevertheless represent more than one domain of institutionalized social practice and so provide a mythical model of social action Instances of delegitimization can be seen in a mythical action

  33. MULTIMODAL LEGITIMATION Some forms of legitimation can also be expressed visually, or even musically. Stories, for instance, can be told visually, in the form of comic strips, movies, and games. Role models can be shown as engaged in actions that need legitimation. Moral evaluations can be connoted visually or represented by visual symbols.

  34. LEGITIMATION AND CONTEXT These are the same folks that came and killed about 3,000 of our citizens.1 (Bush, 11 January 2007) Emotions On September 11 2001, 19 men hijacked four airplanes and used them to murder nearly 3,000 people. (Obama, 1 December 2009) Fear And so our commanders looked at the plan and said, Mr President, it s not going to work until unless we support provide more troops. And so last night I told the country that I ve committed an additional a little over 20,000 more troops. (Bush, 11 January 2007) Expertise

  35. LEGITIMATION AND CONTEXT Your Government has in its possession another document made in Germany by Hitler s government. It is a detailed plan which they are ready to impose a little later on a dominated world if Hitler wins. It is a plan to abolish all existing religions The property of all churches will be seized by the Reich and its puppets. The cross and all other symbols of religion are to be forbidden In the place of the churches of our civilization, there is to be set up an international Nazi church In the place of the Bible, the words of Mein Kampf will be imposed and enforced as Holy Writ. And in place of the cross of Christ will be put two symbols the swastika and the naked sword. A god of blood and iron will take the place of the God of love and mercy. (FDR, 1941a)

  36. THANK YOU

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