Dictionary:

legitimacy

  (lə-jĭt'ə-mə-sē)

The quality or fact of being legitimate.

noun

The state or quality of being within the law: lawfulness, legality, legitimateness, licitness. See law.

The property that a regime's procedures for making and enforcing laws are acceptable to its subjects. The term is derived from Weberian sociology. As Weber emphasized, legitimacy constituted the basis of very real differences in the way in which power was exercised. There was a generally observable need for any power to justify itself. There were three broad grounds for exercising authority, based on: tradition; charisma; and rational legal authority, resting on a belief in the legality of enacted rules and the right of those in positions of authority to issue commands. Obedience is owed not to a traditionally sanctioned person or a charismatically qualified leader, but to the legally established impersonal order. It extends to the persons occupying a public office by virtue of the legality of their commands. Their authority is confined to the scope of the office and cannot be used in a capricious or self-interested way.

In his classic study, Political Man, S. M. Lipset argued that: ‘Legitimacy involves the capacity of the [political] system to engender and maintain the belief that the existing political institutions are the most appropriate ones for the society.’ Lipset argues that Western nations have had to face three difficult and potentially destabilizing issues: (1) the place of the church or of various religions within the nation; (2) the admission of the working class to full economic and political rights; and (3) the continuing struggle over the distribution of the national income. Some of the greatest challenges to the legitimacy of nation-states in the 1980s and 1990s have come from groups which do not accept the legitimacy of the territorial boundaries of the nation-state, for example many Québecois within Canada. In extreme cases, this has led to the dissolution of the former nation-state, for example in Yugoslavia. The difficulty of maintaining government in the face of a challenge from a minority population which does not accept the legitimacy of existing territorial boundaries is shown by the case of Northern Ireland. As well as being a crucial problem in divided societies, the issue of legitimacy also arises in relation to new types of political formation such as the European Union. Because of the perceived problem of the democratic deficit, the European Union is often regarded as lacking adequate means of legitimation from the citizens of the Union. The ability to issue commands which are seen as binding because they are legitimate is one of the central pillars of a stable political order.

— Wyn Grant

For the Wikipedia essay, see .

Legitimacy, from the Latin word legitimare, may refer to:

• Legitimacy (law)
• Legitimacy of standards
• Legitimacy (political science)
• Legitimate expectation
• Legitimate peripheral participation
• Legitimate theater
• Legitimation

Legit may refer to:

• Legit (professional wrestling)
• Legit (TV series)
• Legit Ballin' - record label
• B-Legit - American rapper
• Too Legit to Quit - MC Hammer album
• Too Legit for the Pit: Hardcore Takes the Rap - album of cover versions of hiphop songs

• WP:LEGIT - shortcut for Wikipedia essay,

See also

• Constitutional legitimacy
• Legitimacy of NATO bombing of Yugoslavia
• Legitimacy of the 2003 invasion of Iraq

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)