How do you understand the issue of political legitimacy? Urgent!

Orthodoxy is orthodoxy, or orthodoxy. Its English concept is legitimacy, which means reasonable or fair. In English expression, legitimacy is closely related to legitimacy and authority, but it cannot be equated. Legitimacy is more a legal concept, which refers to citizens' obedience to the law, regardless of whether the law is just (that is, "good law" or "evil law"). In other words, legitimacy in the legal sense does not necessarily guarantee that the government is respected, and citizens do not necessarily admit that obeying the government is out of obligation. The concept of "rule of law" emphasized by ancient legalists in China actually belongs to this category.

In addition, the concept of legality in the legal sense emphasizes whether the formulation of a law conforms to the procedure, generally referring to whether it conforms to the constitutional provisions; The legitimacy of political significance emphasizes whether people can accept this law as a reasonable thing. For example, during the implementation of apartheid policy in South Africa, the majority of blacks did not think that the laws with the nature of apartheid were legal, although their formulation and adoption were in line with the national constitution at that time. On the contrary, some illegal acts, such as peaceful demonstrations to achieve a certain goal, sometimes have legitimacy. At least some people think it makes sense. In the 20th century, civil protests in many countries made great contributions to the fight for equal voting rights and the independence of countries from colonial rule. These facts also show that political legitimacy and legal legitimacy have different meanings and use contexts.

The legitimacy of political significance is also closely related to authority. With legitimacy, it also has the legitimacy or legitimacy of behavior, so it is equivalent to having authority. Therefore, some people simply understand legitimacy as "the characteristic of giving orders authority", that is, making orders authoritative. Accordingly, the concept of legitimacy is also understood as transforming power into authority. However, legitimacy is not simply equal to authority. When using the concept of legitimacy, we usually aim at the whole government or political system, while when using the concept of authority, we usually aim at specific positions, institutions or leaders in the government. Therefore, legitimacy involves political power and system, while authority generally involves institutions or individuals.

The so-called political legitimacy refers to the legitimacy or legitimacy of the government's rule based on the principle of people's approval. Simply put, it is the extent to which the government's rule is considered reasonable and moral by citizens. When most people think that the government's rule (including the threat of force) is justified, that is, the government has legitimacy, the people will consciously obey the government's rule, and even if there is conflict, it will not endanger the fundamental rule. In this case, the regime is stable, and the political order under the regime is generally relatively stable. Individual mistakes of the government or some mistakes of policies will not lead to the collapse of the whole political system. On the contrary, when most people think that a government is illegal, for example, they think that this government is based on robber logic and robber politics (including usurpation of power, coup, assassination, forced public opinion, constitutional amendment by force, bribery, family manipulation, violent governance, etc.). ), the government has no legitimacy. In this case, people are forced to obey under the pressure of violence, but they will vent their dissatisfaction at the first time and form a large-scale protest movement; Moreover, any mistake of the government may lead to the collapse of the government and the overall crisis of the whole political system.

Political legitimacy has different applications in political philosophy and politics. Political philosophers generally use this concept from the moral point of view, and regard legitimacy as the principle of morality or rationality, and as the reason why the government requires citizens to obey. In the eyes of political philosophers, having legitimacy is more important than mastering the power to make people obey. Political scientists generally use this term in the sociological sense, and only regard legitimacy as obeying a certain ruling system, regardless of how it makes people obey. In this sense, political legitimacy is a concept of political philosophy. It has no special significance for political science.

In addition, the earliest proposal and use of political legitimacy is mainly used to explain the foundation and mode of political power establishment. For example, Max Weber's research is used to analyze the authoritative basis of different regimes, that is, the so-called "tradition", "personal charm" and "jurisprudence". Today, this concept is not only used to analyze the source of authority when the regime was established, but also used to measure the degree of authority after the regime was established.

However, in real politics, different regimes have different legitimacy bases. Compared with people from different countries, it is difficult to find a unified standard to measure. Moreover, the weights of different elements that form the basis of legitimacy in different periods in the same country are also different. Therefore, it is difficult to compare the degree of political legitimacy between different regimes.

However, the difficulty of comparison does not prevent research on the basis of political legitimacy of a single country. This kind of research can help us understand the source and basis of legitimacy, establish the types of political legitimacy, and find ways to expand the basis of political legitimacy.

Political legitimacy is the legitimacy and rationality of political rule, which is manifested in the people's recognition and support for the political power. However, the basis and elements of political legitimacy are very extensive. In other words, there are many factors that make a regime win the support and recognition of the people, some because the fundamental system is reasonable, some because a political leader is popular, some because an ideology is popular, some because a government is popular (relatively speaking), and some because a policy benefits the people. Judging from the long-term development and lasting continuation of political power, it is obviously more fundamental and practical to maintain political rule because the system is reasonable and recognized by the people than because a leader, a policy and a government are popular, and it is also more practical than ideological encouragement. The life span of leaders is short, the effectiveness of policies is limited, the government will change, ideology will be outdated, but a reasonable system will last forever. In the absence of rationality in the system, the loss of personal charm of political leaders, the reduction of policy interests and the fading of ideological persuasiveness may endanger the whole regime. On the contrary, on the basis that a reasonable system is widely recognized by the people, all these changes can only lead to the downfall of a leader or a government at best.

Based on the above analysis, we can use two indicators to examine the political legitimacy: (1) citizens' recognition and support rate of political power can be shown through public opinion surveys; (2) The durability of citizens' recognition and support for political power can be judged by analyzing the reasons why citizens support political power. Generally speaking, if people's recognition and support for the regime comes from a reasonable system design, or conversely, people's dissatisfaction with the government has nothing to do with the system itself, then we can judge that the legitimacy of the regime is persistent; If the people's recognition and support for political power comes from short-term variable factors (such as mainly because of someone, a policy, or a temporary ideological tendency, etc.). ), then we can judge that there are some problems in the legitimacy of the regime, and the regime crisis may be caused by the changes of these variable factors in the future.

Political legitimacy is of great significance to real political life. First of all, it is related to the persistence of political order and political rule: the stability of social order, political situation and political power. Theoretically, a government that lacks political legitimacy or has a serious shortage of political legitimacy resources is often a government that relies entirely or mainly on violence (coercion) to maintain its rule. Because it is not recognized by the people, the social order is unstable, and people protest against some actions or omissions of the government, which may directly endanger the existence of the regime; The stability achieved by high pressure has become a superficial phenomenon, society is like a volcano erupting at any time, and the government is in crisis. Under such a regime, strongman rule is widely practiced within the government, and the struggle within the ruling group, the division and change of members, especially the change of the personal fate of political strongmen, will become the decisive factors for political changes. When the government is in a full-scale crisis, it is generally difficult to solve the problem by changing the government or changing the leaders. The final result of the crisis is often that the whole political system on which the government depends is completely denied. For example, not only overthrow the government or strongman rule, but also deny the regime and system, abolish the "constitution" and laws on which the government depends, and rebuild the whole social order.

Secondly, political legitimacy means the rationality of political power or system. In a positive sense, it is very important to establish the legal basis of political power. It means establishing the authority of a government system based on long-term stability, not the personal authority of a government or a ruler. It reminds us that we must devote ourselves to the rationalization of the system and establish a political system and political order on the basis of unquestionable and recognized principles.