Informal Justice: Legitimation Practices in Modern Azerbaijan

Many works in political science study various aspects of ‘formal’ democratic legitimacy by looking at political parties, constitutional provisions and voters’ preferences (Linz, 1990; O’Donnell, 1979; Bunce, 2001). The current scholarship fails to provide a systematic analysis on the process of authoritarian informal legitimation or the construction of norm enterpreneurship. Research on authoritarianism and its legitimation practices would broaden our understanding of the structural behavior in non-democratic regimes. It would explain the logic of authoritarian leaders in rationalising their legitimation strategies, their attitudes to the legitimate constitution and the legal-rational order, as well as the dependency on charismatic domination and non-rational legitimation schemes (ex. state propaganda, patriotic education, regime’s symbolic power, norn enterpreneurship). To secure legitimation, autocratic leaders have to address popular demands for socio-economic development and state security (Matveeva, 2009). Autocratic rulers who plan to prolong their rule ‘indefinitely’ have to resort to democratic procedures and institutions, thereby adopting the mantle of democratic justice even as they avoided its essence (Gerschewski 2013, Brownlee 2007). The political regime in modern Azerbaijan experiences the rise of power consolidation and restrictions of formal political activities, like public protests, freedom of speech, or a mass shut down of civil society organizations. In the absence of strong political institutions and the effective court system, people are seeking justice in informal ways via neopatrimonial networks and traditional values (‘mentalitet’). This informal legitimation process is coupled with a high degree of corruption and state criminalization. The main goal of this paper is to investigate the issues of informal legitimation practices performed by state actors and society to ensure social stability and power balance. The research is based on the empirical materials (interviews and archival documents) collected during the PhD fieldwork in 2016-2017.