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Rethinking Legitimacy and Illegitimacy in Violent Political Conflict
Author(s) -
Schoon Eric W.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
sociology compass
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.782
H-Index - 31
ISSN - 1751-9020
DOI - 10.1111/soc4.12347
Subject(s) - legitimation , legitimacy , ambiguity , politics , construct (python library) , sociology , positive economics , criminology , political science , epistemology , social psychology , political economy , law , psychology , economics , philosophy , linguistics , computer science , programming language
Analytic and conceptual ambiguity associated with the study of legitimacy have motivated debates over the utility of this construct in the analysis of violent political conflict. Using these debates as a point of departure, I review several challenges that have limited the study of legitimacy in this area and discuss two features of legitimation that have gone widely overlooked: (i) the asymmetric causes and effects of legitimacy and illegitimacy, and (ii) the relational dynamics of legitimation. I argue that turning explicit analytic attention to the asymmetry and relationality of legitimacy and illegitimacy allows us to overcome the most intractable challenges associated with the analysis of legitimation in violent conflict.