How Ideology Shapes Legal Concepts: The Case of Public Order

This study explores the intersection of ideology and legal reasoning using a novel systemic approach grounded in network thinking, analyzing the vague legal concept of public order (PO) as a social representation. Our findings support the presence of a broadly agreed-upon core of PO, alongside a periphery, which is variable and connected to ideology, especially right-wing authoritarianism. In this context, political beliefs seem to be linked with reasoning about some PO judgments, such as when assessing LGBTQ+ rights. Our findings suggest the need to raise awareness among legal policymakers and practitioners about the ideological underpinnings of PO while demonstrating the utility of network modeling as a powerful tool for studying legal concepts across diverse legal cultures and regions.