(This is an archived extract from the book Patterns of Power: Edition 2)
Political legitimacy can be defined as having the right to govern. For a government to be effective in practice, to be able to exert power in all the dimensions of governance (6.1.3), the population has to perceive the political system as legitimate. Social stability depends on legitimacy, as David Beetham pointed out:
“Enhanced order, stability, effectiveness - these are the typical advantages that accrue to a legitimate system of power as a result of the obligations upon subordinates that derive from its legitimacy. 'Order' depends upon people obeying rather than disobeying. 'Stability' is not mere longevity, but a system's ability to withstand shock and failure because a solid level of support from its subordinates can be guaranteed. 'Effectiveness' includes the ability of the powerful to achieve their goals because of the quality of performance they can secure from those subordinate to them.” [1]
Conversely, a lack of legitimacy can be used by disaffected groups to justify protest, violence or even terrorism.[2]
© PatternsofPower.org, 2014
[1] David Beetham summarised the advantages of legitimacy in his book The Legitimation of Power, p.33.
[2] Professor Richard English made the point that lack of political legitimacy feeds terrorism, in a lecture entitled Terrorism: How to Respond, at the LSE, 8 October 2009. The podcast of this lecture was available in May 2014 at http://richmedia.lse.ac.uk/publicLecturesAndEvents/20091008_1830_terrorismHowToRespond.mp3. His book, with the same title, was published by Oxford University Press in 2009.