StopLearnStopLearnLegitimacy emanates from the Latin word legitimus which means “legal” or “approved”. Thus legitimacy refers to the general acceptance by people of the political structure and government of the day. Without legitimacy, the government and its structure can hardly exist. When however government exists without legitimacy, it does so with force and becomes a tyrannical or dictatorial government.
Legitimacy as a concept is different from power and authority, in that it flows from the ruled to the ruler, while power and authority flow from the ruler to the ruled, as illustrated below.
Ruler——-authority–—ruled
Ruler——–power———ruled
Ruled——-legitimacy—-ruled
From the above diagram, we can observe that authority and power proceed from the government to the governed while legitimacy proceeds from the governed to the government.
Below are some factors that determine legitimacy:
As explained earlier, authority is related to position. Authority is not in the individual that occupies a position in which authority resides. What confers authority on a position is legitimacy. If authority emanating from a position is accepted by those to whom it is directed, then legitimacy is confirmed. In other words, it is legitimacy that makes authority accepted. Legitimacy is the reason people accept the authority of others. Therefore in a state, if the governed think that their government is legitimate, they will naturally obey it. Thus legitimacy gives credence to peaceful political atmosphere which guarantees the stability of a political era or administration.
EVALUATION
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