Administrative autonomy and rule-following boost state legitimacy and stability

Evidence

Here are located the more enduring institutions that carry out the day-to-day assignments as well as preserve the procedures, habits, and documents that give rhythm, predictability, and universality to the operations of the state. Even the most restrained leadership, beyond its strictly constitutional mandate to oversee, appoint, or dismiss, can take advantage of those gray areas or exceptional situations in which authority or prerogative is unclear. However, such a moment also presents a good test case for a regime’s self-monitoring and the autonomy of the relevant institutions. Accordingly, the greater the compliance with basic rules and recognition of the rational intelligence of the apparatus of the state, the larger the dividends for both the regime’s image and the viability of political institutions and order. In contradistinction, the more the operational organs are tied to the whims of the regime interest or the leader, the greater the evaporation of legitimacy for all the frames. This is the ultimate cost of personal rule, corruption, and incompetence. — Abdi Ismail Samatar, Africa’s First Democrats, 111

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Legitimacy requires a visible link between votes and policy, not just good results — Jürgen Habermas, A New Structural Transformation of the…, 98; A republic’s stability rests on assurance that all will respect shared rules. — Adelin-Costin Dumitru, Forging the Resistive Republic: Social…, 18; Dispersing state power across independent governance centers protects liberty without over-complicating rules. — Adelin-Costin Dumitru, Forging the Resistive Republic: Social…, 55 (+1 more)