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Legitimacy, coercion, and scope: An expansion path analysis applied to five central American countries and Cuba
Author(s) -
Heggen Richard J.,
Cuzán Alfred G.
Publication year - 1981
Publication title -
behavioral science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.371
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1099-1743
pISSN - 0005-7940
DOI - 10.1002/bs.3830260207
Subject(s) - legitimacy , coercion (linguistics) , scope (computer science) , government (linguistics) , function (biology) , politics , political science , sociology , political economy , computer science , law , philosophy , linguistics , evolutionary biology , biology , programming language
In an earlier paper, Cuzán presented a micropolitical model on the relationships between the legitimacy of government, the scope of government, and the level of coercion administered by government to implement its commands; the model was successfully applied to 1974 data from Ave Central American countries. This paper takes Cuzán's original model as its point of departure. It deals with the implementation of decisions in societal systems. It argues that the structure of Cuzán's construction is essentially the same as that of a two‐dimensional production function of the type used in micro‐ and engineering economics. This permits the incorporation of expansion path analysis that is familiar to these disciplines into the political model. Longitudinal data for the same five Central American countries and an historical analysis of the Cuban revolution are used to evaluate the theory empirically, with encouraging results.