Social Justification and Political Legitimacy: How Voters Rationalize Direct Democratic Economic Policy in America

336 Pages·2020·3.429 MB·English

by  Luis Antonio Vila-Henninger

Social Justification
and Political Legitimacy
How Voters Rationalize
Direct Democratic Economic
Policy in America
Luis Antonio Vila-Henninger
Social Justification and Political Legitimacy
Luis Antonio Vila-Henninger
Social Justification
and Political
Legitimacy
How Voters Rationalize Direct Democratic
Economic Policy in America
Luis Antonio Vila-Henninger
UCLouvain
Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
ISBN 978-3-030-51715-1 ISBN 978-3-030-51716-8 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51716-8
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer
Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Portions of this book have been reproduced from my dissertation, as well as Vila-
Henninger 2017, 2018, 2019a, and 2019b.
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights
of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on
microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and
retrieval,electronicadaptation,computersoftware,orbysimilarordissimilarmethodology
now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc.
in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such
namesareexemptfromtherelevantprotectivelawsandregulationsandthereforefreefor
general use.
Thepublisher,theauthorsandtheeditorsaresafetoassumethattheadviceandinforma-
tion in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither
the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with
respecttothematerialcontainedhereinorforanyerrorsoromissionsthatmayhavebeen
made.Thepublisherremainsneutralwithregardtojurisdictionalclaimsinpublishedmaps
and institutional affiliations.
This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature
Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
I would like to dedicate this book to those who supported and encouraged
me throughout this entire process. To name a few: Loretta Vila-Henninger,
Luis R. Vila-Henninger, Miguel Vila-Henninger, Rosario Rizzo Lara,
Terrence Hill, Harvey, Nazir Harb, Maitham Naeemi, Omar Harb,
Patrick Gahr, Chris Miller, Shanda Romans, Justin Knoll, the Qualidem
team, UCLouvain ISPOLE, the University of Arizona Graduate and
Professional Student Council, and the University of Arizona School of
Sociology—especially Heather Bremenstuhl, Jessie K. Finch, Kate Gunby,
and Sosuke Okada.
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank Jeff Sallaz, Jane Zavisca, Albert Bergesen,
Lane Kenworthy, Terrence Hill, Henry Walker, Jurgita Abromaviciute,
Corey Abramson, Jodi O’Brien, Mark Cohan, Louise Roth, Taylor
Danielson, Rosario Rizzo Lara, and anonymous reviewers for their feed-
back throughout the development of my dissertation and/or this book.
I would also like to thank all of my respondents, Gina Walsh, Eleanor
Stilson, Colleen Pignato, Rochelle Cox, Sherry Bao, Christine Scolinos,
Adrian Barbachan, The Arizona Department of Economic Security, and
B. Torres-Traylor for their contributions. Finally, I thank Virginie Van
Ingelgom, Claire Dupuy, Margherita Bussi, Cal Le Gall, Mauro Caprioli,
Damien Pennetreau, and Ferdinand Teuber for all of their support and
feedback—as well as for helping me to refine my qualitative research
skillset through our collaboration on qualitative secondary analysis with
Qualidem. This research was made possible in part by a grant from the
UniversityofArizonaGraduateandProfessionalStudentCouncil.Award
Reference Number RSRCH-505FY’15.
vii
Contents
1 Introduction 1
Part I
2 Theory 27
3 Analytical Approach and Broader American Political
and Economic Discourses 65
4 Data and Methods 85
Part II
5 Proposition 201 (2008) 105
6 Proposition 202 (2008) 151
7 Proposition 204 (2012) 205
8 Moral Economies 251
ix
x CONTENTS
9 Conclusion and Theory Building 285
Index 327
List of Tables
Table 2.1 The functions of legitimation from contemporary
sociological literature 29
Table 4.1 Quasi-independent variable operational definitions 93
Table 4.2 Initial comparison groups with projected number of
respondents 97
Table 4.3 Achieved case set for the analysis in this book 97
Table 4.4 Unusable cases from project case set for analysis in this
book 98
Table 5.1 Proposition 201 (2008): expected Proposition 201
position by economic position/partisan affiliation
comparison group and percentage Proposition 201
support 115
Table 5.2 Rationales and rationale groups for Proposition 201
(2008) 126
Table 5.3 Legitimations distinctive of partisan affiliation and DDEP
position alignment and opposition for Proposition 201
(2008) 128
Table 5.4 Legitimations exclusive to economic position and DDEP
position alignment and opposition for Proposition 201
(2008) 130
Table 5.5 Expected: legitimations exclusive to the expected DDEP
position for partisan affiliation and economic position for
Proposition 201 (2008) 132
xi
xii LIST OF TABLES
Table 5.6 Unexpected: legitimations exclusive to the unexpected
DDEP position for economic position and partisan
affiliation for Proposition 201 (2008) 134
Table 5.7 Conflicting expectations: legitimations exclusive to the
expected DDEP position for economic position and
unexpected DDEP position for partisan affiliation for
Proposition 201 (2008) 137
Table 5.8 Conflicting expectations: legitimations exclusive to the
expected DDEP position for partisan affiliation and
unexpected DDEP position for economic position for
Proposition 201 (2008) 142
Table 6.1 Expected Proposition 202 (2008) position by economic
position/partisan affiliation comparison groups and
percentage Proposition 202 support 164
Table 6.2 Rationales and rationale groups for Proposition 202
(2008) 177
Table 6.3 Legitimations distinctive of partisan affiliation and DDEP
position alignment and opposition for Proposition 202
(2008) 179
Table 6.4 Legitimations exclusive to economic position and DDEP
position alignment and opposition for Proposition 202
(2008) 183
Table 6.5 Expected: legitimations exclusive to the expected DDEP
position for partisan affiliation and economic position for
Proposition 202 (2008) 186
Table 6.6 Unexpected: legitimations exclusive to the unexpected
DDEP position for economic position and partisan
affiliation for Proposition 202 (2008) 190
Table 6.7 Conflicting expectations: legitimations exclusive to the
expected DDEP position for economic position and
unexpected DDEP position for partisan affiliation for
Proposition 202 (2008) 192
Table 6.8 Conflicting expectations: legitimations exclusive to the
expected DDEP position for partisan affiliation and
unexpected DDEP position for economic position for
Proposition 202 (2008) 194
Table 7.1 Proposition 204 (2012): expected Proposition 204
position by economic position/partisan affiliation
comparison groups and percentage Proposition 204
support 216
Table 7.2 Rationales and rationale groups for Proposition 204
(2012) 227