In Times of Political Crisis, Why do People Support the Police? Police Legitimacy in Taiwan

• In Event: Policing in Asia (Organized and Sponsored by Korean Society of Criminology in America (KoSCA), Association of Chinese Criminology and Criminal Justice in the United States (ACCCJ), and Division of International Criminology (DIC))

Abstract

The current research extends the study of legitimacy to the support for the police during a political crisis. Relying on a random sample collected from the Taipei metropolitan area a month after the Sunflower Movement in 2014, we have found that perceived police legitimacy functioned well, albeit weaker, as expected from the theory of legitimacy whereas the political party preference, a proxy measure of powerholder legitimacy, exerts the strongest positive impact on the support for the police during such crisis. We conclude that political orientation structures perceived legitimacy and enhances the support for the police during the social movement. In addition, an alternative model of democratic policing is discussed within the context of Taiwan and the study leads us to believe that the Confucian culture is not destined to be authoritarian and violent, but is capable of regenerating itself as an alternative form of democratic policing, and more broadly, governance.

Authors

• Liqun Cao, Ontario Tech University

• Fei Luo, Texas A&M International University

• Yung-Lien Lai, Central Police University

• Yan Zhang, Sam Houston State University