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Doppelgangers of the State: Private Security and Transferable Legitimacy
Author(s) -
Phelps Martha Lizabeth
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
politics and policy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.259
H-Index - 23
eISSN - 1747-1346
pISSN - 1555-5623
DOI - 10.1111/polp.12100
Subject(s) - legitimacy , state (computer science) , business , private sector , national security , private security , law and economics , economic system , political science , public administration , economics , law , politics , algorithm , computer science
The U . S . national military hires private security companies ( PSC s) to operate in zones of conflict. This article introduces the concept of a legitimacy transfer mechanism to answer the question of how nonnational providers of military support can be considered legitimate actors in areas of conflict. PSCs borrow legitimacy from the state that contracts the firm. Private firms do not operate alone; they are hired and, at least marginally, directed by a state. By using the established legitimacy of industrialized states these firms are able to find legitimacy in Western security culture. To maintain future business, private security is forced to obey the security culture of the hiring state. More so, the firm will mimic the goals and policy of the hiring state in an attempt to build its own, independent, sense of legitimacy.