When the construction of police legitimacy backfires? Emotion expression management in times of the erosion of the rule of law

Abstract

Emotion management in relation to police legitimacy during the pandemic in Poland offers an illustrative case study of backfire mechanisms in times of the erosion of the rule of law. Grounded in social constructionism, the study uses qualitative frame analysis to determine: what emotion management strategies embedded in discursive frames were used by the police and the state to build and rebuild police legitimacy during the pandemic? Why did they backfire? Masking, a strategy negative in valence, backfired. Ignoring emotions experienced by officers in frames constructed to gain legitimacy widened the rift between police and ordinary people. For the latter, it was equivalent to losing another public institution to the ruling state. If masking is the only strategy in use, law enforcement will likely be perceived negatively, and citizens will resist, impairing the ability of the police to perform its duties.