Legitimacy of Public Organizations Through Time: Communicating the Case of the 43 Disappeared Students in Mexico

Authors	Dimensions of legitimacy	Definition
Weber (1978)	Tradition	Routines, prevailing practices, custom
Weber (1978)	Charisma	Trust and faith, moral stance, affectual attitudes
Legal-rational	Laws and procedures
Stryker (1994)	Constitutive	Rules of the game
Stryker (1994)	Instrumental	Orientation to outcomes
Normative	Orientation to internalized rules
Suchman (1995)	Pragmatic	Self-interested calculation or benefits of an organization’s most immediate audiences
Suchman (1995)	Moral	Positive normative evaluation of the organization and its activities
Cognitive	Comprehensibility (plausibility and predictability) or on taken-for-grantedness (inevitability)
Ruef and Scott (1998), Scott (2008)	Regulative	Explicit regulative processes: rule-setting, monitoring and sanctioning – laws
Ruef and Scott (1998), Scott (2008)	Normative	Rules that introduce a prescriptive, evaluative and obligatory dimension to the organization – beliefs
Cognitive	Rules that specify what types of actors can exist, what procedures they can follow – culture
Zimmerman and Zeitz (2002)	Regulatory	Derived from regulations, rules, standards, credentialing associations
Zimmerman and Zeitz (2002)	Normative	Derived from the norms of society
Cognitive	Derived from beliefs and values
Industrial	Derived from the operation, actions and consequences
Vaara, Tienari, Laurila (2006)	Normalization	Exemplifies normal function or behavior
	Authorization	Authorizes claims
	Rationalization	Reference to the utility or function of actions or practices
Moralization	Reference to values
Narrativization	Provides a narrative structure to concretize and dramatize
Brown et al. (2012)	Logos	Rational calculation of means and ends, and desires of efficient and effective actions
	Pathos	Impact on emotional responses
	Ethos	Moral or ethical sensibilities, encouraging feelings of “rightness”
Moralization	Moral values or norms
Rationalization	Utility, benefits, functions or outcomes

Table 2

Categorization of dimensions of legitimacy.

Author	Rationalization	Authorization	Normalization	Moralization
Weber (1978)	Rational-legal		Tradition	Charisma
Stryker (1994)	Instrumental	Constitutive	Normative	–
Suchman (1995)	Pragmatic	–	Cognitive	Moral
Ruef and Scott (1998)	–	Regulative	Normative	Cognitive
Zimmerman and Zeitz (2002)	Industrial	Regulative	Normative	Cognitive
Vaara et al. (2006)	Rationalization	Authorization	Normalization	Moralization
Narrativization
Brown et al. (2012)	Logos	–	Pathos	Ethos

Table 3

Visualization of the coding process of a press release.

Press release 230–18	Theme coded	Strategy of legitimacy
“AS IT HAS DONE SO FAR, the Government of the Republic REITERATES that it WILL CONTINUE WORKING	Alignment with the past	Normalization
with the follow-up mechanism of the INTERAMERICAN COMMISSION OF HUMAN RIGHTS	International organization	Authorization
as well as with the families of the victims and their representatives until the full clarification of this case EXHAUSTING ALL POSSIBLE LINES OF INVESTIGATION that allows to know everything that has happened with the disappeared students, and to punish those responsible,	Actions in the case	Rationalization
in accordance with the MEXICAN LEGAL FRAMEWORK and INTERNATIONAL OBLIGATIONS in the matter.”	Rules and regulations	Authorization

Table 4

Emergent themes in the qualitative analysis.

	Main theme	Definition	Exemplary quote
Rationalization Justification through outcomes, results, instrumental demands	Actions in the case	Search, prosecution and administrative actions	“He informed that, from February 18 to this date [March 17], 93 ministerial requirements, 24 forensic opinions, two field search actions, four ministerial inspections and 18 ministerial statements were collected, with the purpose to meet all the lines of investigation of the case.” (395–16)
	Technical knowledge	Use of scientific and technological resources	“All the evidence in the file found by the various experts and instances will be put under the consideration of the experts and will be analyzed and verified before issuing their own report.” (313–16)
Presumed perpetrators	Individuals linked to the criminal investigation	“He stressed that in recent weeks important information has been gathered […] which would also account for the level of involvement of the criminal organization, and the role of municipal corporations, in an important scheme of criminal organization” (172–18)
Authorization References to an authority or a mechanism of an authority	Rules and regulations	Legal instruments	“This, in view of the priority and duty of the State to assure victims of human rights violations an effective reparation and in accordance with the American Convention on Human Rights and other relevant treaties” (501–15)
	International Organizations	International human rights forums	“Many of them [elements] have emerged from the relationship of technical support established with the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (IGIE) of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights” (679–15)
Instructions	Instructions given by the President or by the head of the Office of the Prosecutor	“As President Enrique Peña Nieto instructed, the Office of the Prosecutor is analyzing the report, in order to enrich the investigation of the unfortunate events of September 26 and 27, 2014.” (603–16)
Moralization Justification through values	Values	Impacts of the events on society and moral goals	“We are looking to have institutions for the prosecution of justice that grant absolute trust and credibility to citizens” (548–15)
Normalization Justification through references to the past	Alignment with past	Alignment of present actions with past actions and routines	“As has been reiterated, the investigation for the clarification of the facts of the case continues to be open, thus on a permanent basis we are continuing with search actions” (24apr-16)