Kwame Gyekye seeks to address the complex question of political legitimacy particularly on the African continent. He argues that the justification for political legitimacy need not necessarily depend on the economic performance of any given regime. For him, justification for legitimacy merely lies in whether all correct processes and procedures were properly followed in the assumption of power. He is of the view that military coups should not be tolerated as they lack legitimacy although they might have justification usurping power. He also argues that popular uprisings may have the justification to assume power but should subject themselves to a plebiscite to have legitimacy. In this paper I seek to argue that Gyekye's distinction between legitimacy and justification of exercise of political power is unsustainable. In contrast to Gyekye I seek to argue for a more plausible account of legitimacy that takes the substantive requirement much more seriously. I do this by showing the importance of the function of institutional checks on power in traditional African societies and seek to argue for the urgent need of such institutionalised checks on power in post-colonial Africa.
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Anxious Vigilance and the Production of (Il)legitimacy in the UK Citizenship Regime
“It's How You Sift Them Out, Y'know?”
Rachel Lewis
called to evidence their legitimacy not only in legislative/bureaucratic terms but also in normative terms. “Citizenization,” as Anne- Marie Fortier (2017) terms it, requires the citizen-candidate to display and evidence characteristics of
In Conflict and Society
- Published (Print):
- 01 Jun 2022
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 125–141 (17 total)
Evaluating the Quality and Legitimacy of Global Governance
A Theoretical and Analytical Approach
Tim Cadman
Global governance, central to international rule-making, is rapidly evolving; thus, there is a need for a way to evaluate whether institutions have the capacity to address the problems of the contemporary era. Current methods of evaluating the democratic quality of contemporary governance are closely linked to legitimacy, about which there are competing definitional theories. This article uses a theoretical approach based around “new“ governance and the environmental policy arena to argue that contemporary governance is best understood as social-political interaction built on “participation as structure“ and “deliberation as process“, with the level of interaction ultimately determining legitimacy. It presents a new arrangement of the accepted attributes of “good“ governance using a set of principles, criteria and indicators, and relates these to the structures and processes of governance. The implications and application of the analytical framework are also discussed.
In The International Journal of Social Quality
- Published (Print):
- 01 Jun 2012
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 4–23 (20 total)
Adopting a Resistance Lens
An Exploration of Power and Legitimacy in Transitional Justice
Julie Bernath and Sandra Rubli
Within transitional justice scholarship of the past ten years, “power” and “legitimacy” have increasingly become objects of study, in particular for scholars taking a critical stance to a normative conceptualization and implementation of
In Conflict and Society
- Published (Print):
- 01 Jun 2016
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 87–103 (17 total)
Pluralist Democracy and Non-Ideal Democratic Legitimacy
Against Functional and Global Solutions to the Boundary Problem in Democratic Theory
Tom Theuns
The boundary problem is a classic issue in democratic theory. It holds that, whatever the theory of legitimacy that we believe our preferred democratic decision procedure should meet, the initial act of constituting the demos can never be met by
In Democratic Theory
- Published (Print):
- 01 Jun 2021
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 23–49 (27 total)
Kate Myers
, Wise Children . 3 Indeed, Wise Children self-consciously alludes to the Bard and announces its scrutiny and reversal of a father's claim on biological, and Shakespeare's relatively recent claim on cultural, legitimacy. It is easy to see why critics
In Critical Survey
- Published (Print):
- 01 Jun 2021
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 93–105 (13 total)
Law Abiding Citizens
On Popular Support for the Illegal Killing of Wolves
Olve Krange, Erica von Essen, and Ketil Skogen
correlations exist. Our results suggest that, on the whole, the illegal killing of wolves has fairly low support and thereby low legitimacy as an extra-legal act. This correlates with previous research ( Gangås et al. 2013 ). Although only 49 percent of
In Nature and Culture
- Published (Print):
- 01 Jun 2022
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 191–214 (24 total)
Fear at Work
Bureaucratic and Affective Encounters between Primary School Teachers and Their ‘Chiefs’ in Postcolonial Benin
Pauline Jarroux
illustrate transformations in the way authority is spoken and performed in postcolonial Benin. As I will show, fear in administrative relationships gives rise to discussions and negotiations about the legitimacy of state practices and the way its authority
In The Cambridge Journal of Anthropology
- Published (Print):
- 01 Sep 2022
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 72–87 (16 total)
Maurizio Passerin d'Entrèves
This article examines the question of justice in democratic constitutional states from the standpoint of a theory of deliberative democracy. Its aim is to show that the validity of a conception of justice and the legitimacy of political institutions and public policies based upon it can best be defended on the basis of a normative theory of deliberative democracy. This theory, I shall argue, is superior to the two main normative models of justification that appeal to the ideal of neutrality (Rawls, Larmore, Nagel) or to the ideal of perfectionism (Raz, Galston).
Genesis of Populism
Its Russian Sediments and Its Updating in Latin America in Historical-Conceptual Key
Claudio Sergio Ingerflom
Russian populist listening to David Graeber of Occupy Wall Street would comment: “We have already said it.” The Legitimacy of Populism After confirming the absence of independent estates and the consequent impossibility of creating parties to
In Contributions to the History of Concepts
- Published (Print):
- 01 Dec 2022
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 41–69 (29 total)