Procedural Fairness and the Legitimacy of Agency Rulemaking

Abstract We examine the relationship between procedural fairness and the legitimacy of rulemaking decisions made by government agencies. Evidence from a survey experiment indicates that the perceived fairness of the rulemaking process is closely tied to procedures designed to make it more transparent and to encourage greater citizen participation. However, our findings do not indicate that fair procedures bestow unconditional legitimacy on agency rulemaking actions. Rather, they suggest that the effect of procedural fairness is context-dependent and complex, with legitimacy perceptions varying across policy domains and being driven by the institutional avoidance of procedural controls rather than the procedures themselves. Thus, there may be significant limitations on the ability of fair procedures to impart legitimacy to bureaucratic policymaking.