Power, Legitimacy, and the Fate of Liberal Contract Theory
In: Praxis international: a philosophical journal, Band 2, Heft 3, S. 284-296
ISSN: 0260-8448
The concept of legitimacy has become impoverished in recent political discourse, due partly to the influence of Max Weber's conception of it as residing solely in public acceptance. This interpretation abandons the early liberal conception, which had strong normative implications & permitted an assessment of a regime's concept of legitimacy independent of popular consent; the decay of this principle is a source of contemporary legitimation problems to which most contemporary theorists are blind. The classical theory of liberal individualism sought to legitimize the state, civil society, & the patriarchal family. These beliefs supported later struggles against patriarchy, slavery, & capitalism. Bureaucratization has undermined contractarian individualism in all three institutions. A basis for reconstructing the concept of legitimacy can be found in the ideas of Jean-Jacques Rousseau on the establishment of institutionalized power, despite certain flaws in his specific proposals. W. H. Stoddard.