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Legitimacy
Legitimacy can be broadly conceived as the acceptability of power relations. It is used in two different but not necessarily mutually exclusive ways. Those concerned with political science tend to treat legitimacy as depending on the beliefs of the individuals subject to authority. This approach is often called sociological (or attitudinal) legitimacy. It holds that an agent is legitimate if its subjects perceive that it possesses the right to rule. By contrast, normative legitimacy is largely prescriptive and favored by political philosophers. On this view, legitimacy is determined by moral considerations, such as whether an institution is democratic, has received its citizens' consent, and protects their human rights. Thus, an institution is legitimate if it has the right to rule and, on some accounts, if ...
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