This chapter explores another reason why culture and values matter to policy makers, namely legitimacy. Many policies rely on their being accepted by citizens as legitimate in order to work. At one level, this is really just another version of the argument in the previous chapter that culture affects outcomes: as the first part of this chapter shows, a failure of legitimacy means the policy will not achieve what it was intended to. The second part takes the case further, demonstrating that legitimacy is important in and of itself, regardless of its effect on whether a policy works. What counts as legitimacy is heavily dependent on culture and values. Therefore it is not possible to ensure that a policy is legitimate unless we take those factors into account.

First, it is important to define what ‘legitimacy’ means. In political science it is generally held to be the situation where a state authority and its actions have power because of consent and mutual understanding rather than coercion. Using a simple example, a legitimate tax is one that people pay on time and without pressure. An illegitimate one needs to be collected by sending revenue service officers or the police to force payment. Legitimacy is a subjective concept, dependent on the beliefs held by the citizens (Weber, 1978). Therefore what counts as legitimate varies according to context, which is a point we will return to later in the chapter when looking at how culture and values affect what counts as ‘legitimate’.

Legitimacy is needed to deliver policy

One of the events that made the greatest impression on me when I was starting to get interested in politics and policy was the poll tax riot in London in the spring of 1990. I had never seen mass street violence in England on the news before. I remember asking my parents why people were rioting and what this ‘poll tax’ was. They explained to me that people were rioting because they thought the new tax was unfair, and the government wasn't listening to them. The idea that a policy needed to be fair, and people needed to agree that it was fair, stuck with me.

The poll tax experience is an excellent example of what can happen if a policy isn't regarded as legitimate and breaches the boundaries of what is socially acceptable.