LEGITIMACY

LEGITIMACY

1. Legitimacy means rightfulness. It is the basis for political stability- in a democracy governments require legitimacy in order to have authority to govern.

2. Governments promote participation in regular competitive elections- they can claim they have a mandate and thus legitimacy

3. Referendums may be used to legitimise particular policies. In the UK they have been used in particular for constitutional issues, e.g. Scottish Devolution 1997

4. Constitutions that lay down the ground rules of government may help to give legitimacy to the government.

5. During periods of political instability or in times of war, governments may try to bypass democratic elections and gain legitimacy by gaining the support of the people using patriotism- e.g. General elections were suspended during WWII

6. Legitimacy can also be claimed in a number of ways' tradition (hereditary monarchy) is still accepted in a number of Arab states