Blackwater Lunchbreak (03-01-2021)
Legitimacy is a crucial aspect of all power relations.
Without legitimacy, power is exerted through coercion; with legitimacy, power can be exerted through voluntary or quasi-voluntary compliance.
This holds for both power exerted by a state (Levi, 1997; Beetham, 1991; Hurd ,1999; Tyler, 2006; Kelman & Hamilton, 1989) and by armed non-state groups (Maher, 2012).
Thus legitimacy can be understood as an acceptance of authority by both elite and non-elite groups, although not all citizens are equal in their capacity to confer legitimacy.
Legitimacy lies at the core of state-citizen relationships and thus of the whole state-building agenda. The logic used in the state-building agenda is that an authority which lacks legitimacy will be challenged, resulting in increased instability.
If states are legitimate, they use fewer resources to coerce, have more resources to devote to improving governance and can rely on citizens’ consent even when certain groups disagree about policies. Levi and Sacks explored the relationship between citizens’ perceptions that government is relatively effective, competent, and procedurally just, and their stated willingness to engage in quasi-voluntary compliance.
https://gsdrc.org/topic-guides/the-legitimacy-of-states-and-armed-non-state-actors/key-language-and-concepts/the-importance-of-understanding-legitimacy/
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