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3 Regul. & Governance 1 (2009)

handle is hein.journals/rgulangnce3 and id is 1 raw text is: Regulation & Governance (2009) 3, 1-26 Nurturing regulatory compliance: Is procedural justice effective when people question the legitimacy of the law? Kristina Murphy Alfred Deakin Institute, Deakin University Geelong, Vic., Australia Tom R. Tyler Department of Psychology, New York University New York, NY USA Amy Curtis School of Psychology, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT Australia Abstract Procedural justice generally enhances an authority's legitimacy and encourages people to comply with an authority's decisions and rules. We argue, however, that previous research on procedural justice and legitimacy has examined legitimacy in a limited way by focusing solely on the perceived legitimacy of authorities and ignoring how people may perceive the legitimacy of the laws and rules they enforce. In addition, no research to date has examined how such perceptions of legitimacy may moderate the effect of procedural justice on compliance behavior. Using survey data collected across three different regulatory contexts - taxation (Study 1), social security (Study 2), and law enforcement (Study 3) - the findings suggest that one's perceptions of the legitimacy of the law moderates the effect of procedural justice on compliance behaviors; procedural justice is more important for shaping compliance behaviors when people question the legitimacy of the laws than when they accept them as legitimate. An explanation of these findings using a social distancing framework is offered, along with a discussion of the implications the findings have on enforcement. Keywords: compliance, legitimacy, motivational postures, procedural justice, regulation. Introduction A long tradition of regulatory research has been interested in asking: What motivates people to comply with the law? A closely related question seeks to address how regulators can best encourage long-term voluntary compliance with their rules and decisions. A debate in the regulatory literature has been between those who suggest compliance is shaped by implementing harsh sanctions and penalties (the deterrence view), and those who believe that gentle persuasion and cooperation works in securing compliance (the accommodative view; see Ayres & Braithwaite 1992). Correspondence: Kristina Murphy, Alfred Deakin Institute, Deakin University, 1 Gheringhap Street, Geelong, Vic. 3220, Australia. Email: tina.murphy@deakin.edu.au Accepted for publication 6 February 2008. © 2009 The Authors Journal compilation © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Asia Pty Ltd doi:10.1111 /j.1748-5991.2009.01043.x

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