Origins of Legitimacy

This attempt at a definition of the contours of the thematic put forward by the IRG is in itself subject to debate and will be progressively refined through future activities on the subject.

In Opposition to the notion of legality (conform to a pre-established juridical, constitutional or legislative order) the concept of legitimacy can be put forward as the state of what is generally accepted by a people. This opposition brings up multiple issues: the recognition and the acceptability of different forms of power, the different types of legitimacy that oppose each other within a political order, the methods of the construction of collective adhesion to the state and the construction of a consensus. What are the types of legitimacy that exist within and exterior to the formal framework of the state? How can you conceive of the legitimacy of a democratic system within specific political cultures? In what sense can legitimacy be linked to the question of the ‘accountability’ of political actors in power?