Open AccessThe Role of Elections in Securing Legitimacy of the Government
Author(s) -
Svetlana V. Lozovskaya
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
gosudarstvennaâ vlastʹ i mestnoe samoupravlenie
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1813-1247
DOI - 10.18572/1813-1247-2020-11-41-45
Subject(s) - legitimacy , terminology , phenomenon , meaning (existential) , political science , authoritarianism , power (physics) , government (linguistics) , state (computer science) , mechanism (biology) , property (philosophy) , law and economics , epistemology , sociology , law , politics , democracy , philosophy , mathematics , linguistics , physics , algorithm , quantum mechanics
Legitimacy is the most important property of state power, and the lack of uniformity of the terminology in modern science used significantly complicates the study of this phenomenon. The article considers the concepts of “legitimacy of state power”, “grounds of legitimacy”, “mechanism of legitimization”, “means of legitimization”. On the basis of an analysis of the views existing in science, it is concluded that these concepts have different meaning. In addition, the author explores the importance of elections as a mechanism for legitimizing power and concludes that authoritarian regimes are unable to justify their own legitimacy by this means.