Legitimacy and Conflict in Areas of Limited Statehood: A Study of Political Violence in Nigeria

Abstract

Legitimacy is a ubiquitous social phenomenon that is studied in a variety of social scientific research domains. Yet, the term is inherently complex, multifaceted, and often situated within complex social arrangements. This dissertation examines the empirical complexities of legitimacy within Nigeria, an emergent and rapidly developing sub-Saharan African nation fraught with political violence and instability. The first chapter outlines the historic and contemporary theoretical fields, revealing legitimacy as a multidimensional symbolic commodity that operates within many levels of a given social structure. The dissertation synthesizes these theories and assumes a relational approach that takes into account the structural characteristics within Nigeria’s populace and evaluates the dynamics between primary actors of the country’s politically contested field: the institutionalized government, armed non-state challengers, and the citizenry as the legitimizing audience. Chapter 2 begins by operationalizing legitimacy’s multidimensionality using survey data from two nationally representative samples. Confirmatory factor analysis reveals seven distinct components consisting of both normative and performance-based evaluative sources (where performance pertains to how a political system, institutions, and leaders function in practice). These dimensions are applied to Nigeria and reveal a diverse legitimacy landscape within a state balancing a complex and contentious ethno-political population. Chapter 3 investigates legitimacy relationships within a populace focusing on how neighborhood-level sentiments and community trust associate with individual legitimacy perceptions and attitudes towards authority system preservation. The analysis reveals that community consensus is a necessary condition for the positive influence of neighborhood-level legitimacy orientation on individual-level perceptions. Moreover, community trust is found to enhance the moderating properties of consensus on performance-based endorsement when predicting attitudes concerning community resistance to terrorist organizations. Chapter 4 examines how broader citizenry needs and relational orientations influence legitimacy evaluations of violent state actions against armed non-state organizations. This chapter applies performance-based and dynamic relational legitimacy theories to two complementary sets of analyses that (1) examine national orientations after a year-long surge in state-based violence against rebel groups and (2) investigate differences in regional orientations after an unexpected and disproportionate state-based attack on civilians. The models reveals that both security needs and orientations toward violent non-state actors significantly moderate the associations between state-based violence and legitimacy perceptions. Additionally, outcomes stemming from the moderating effects of rebel groups orientations reveal inconsistent directionality between legitimacy dimensions. This suggests the possibility of legitimacy dilemmas, such that increased legitimacy within some sectors of a given society may come at the expense of decreased legitimacy in other sectors, and also that increased legitimacy on particular dimensions may exist simultaneously with decreased legitimacy on other dimensions. Finally, the analysis reveals the importance of state-populace relations concerning the provision of government services, especially when matched with the needs of the citizenry, which can significantly enhance legitimacy perceptions across the dimensional spectrum. Overall, the analysis offers empirical clarification and theoretical advancements concerning the multidimensional and relational characteristics of legitimacy within a developing country characterized by violent political strife. The outcomes highlight the meaning, construction, sources, processes, and importance of legitimacy for any state concerned with establishing and sustaining central authority amidst internal areas of limited statehood.