A Structure/Process Approach to Legitimacy: A Local Official's Selection and Legitimation of a Tax Policy in Mid‐Late Ming Dynasty China

Abstract Most studies on the connection between the legitimacy of an authority and its policy selection and legitimation follow a structure approach to legitimacy, which recognises an authoritative actor's selection and legitimation of a policy as determined by the subjects' collective commitment to values. Consequently, it cannot empirically explain policy variation under collective commitment to values and changes in those values. Building on existing processual theories and following the conceptualisation of legitimacy as a social process, this study proposes an integral process approach to legitimacy whereby an authority selects and legitimises a perceived legitimate policy towards subjects. Drawing on findings from a negative case methodology applied to the selection and legitimation of a tax policy by an official in Ming China, this study offers substantive content for an integral process approach to legitimacy. It develops the state legitimacy concept and contributes to emerging theories on the legitimacy dimension of fiscal state formation. Empirically, this study illustrates how the data from the nationwide field survey in mid‐late Ming China were used in tax collection at the local level and illuminates the discrepancies between the survey data and that recorded in local official tax registers.