Creating State Legitimacy – the Five Basic Models

In this paper, I will challenge the widespread idea that democratic elections can be the main instrument for creating political legitimacy and discuss what other types and forms of political practices that may (and may not) create political legitimacy. The argument I criticize is that people will accept a political authority because they have been given the right to take part in “free and fair elections”, resulting in a government that represents the majority of the people that have used their right to vote and thus become members of the legitimate “demos” in democracy. In this way, government policies will represent the “will of the people”. Those who are not part of the majority will accept the outcome because they have a fair chance of becoming the majority in the next election. My argument is that political legitimacy is created, maintained and destroyed not at the input but at the output side of the political system. That is, political legitimacy depends on the quality of government, not on the quality of elections or representation. In addition to the “rule of law” argument, I present four additional models for creating political legitimacy.