The Impact of Policy (Il)Legitimacy on Interagency Collaboration and Trust

How does policy legitimacy, understood as legitimacy relating to the policy process, implementation and outcomes, affect collaboration and trust among social workers, teachers and police working with countering violent extremism? Using experimental methods on a nationally representative sample of 2310 Danish teachers, police officers and social workers, we show the effects of policy legitimacy on professionals who are given discretion in implementing policy decisions in the area. By drawing on a qualitative literature on professionalism and institutional logics, we develop hypotheses about professional collaboration on countering violent extremism. We find that a lack of perceived policy legitimacy lowers trust across professions. Furthermore, social workers and teachers, but not police, become less likely to collaborate across institutional boundaries. The paper sheds light on policy legitimacy as the foundation for how professions collaborate in this space, with implications for those who are responsible for formulating and implementing countering violent extremism policy

Business · Legitimacy · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Law · Nonprofit Sector and Volunteering · Psychology · Public Administration · Public Policy and Administration Research · Research in Social Sciences