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This article provides a conceptual analysis of different uses of the term 'legitimacy'. Rather than attempting to provide a simple 'definition' I argue that the meaning of the concept cannot be understood in terms of a clear reference, but has to be analysed through its links with other concepts within a semantic field. In this way we are also able to 'explain' why at first contradictory uses of the term (designating its 'input' or the 'output' side) are part of its 'grammar'. To that extent attempts at stipulative definitions aiming at an unequivocal sense of the term fundamentally misunderstand the function of this concept within the political discourse.

Legitimacy has been a key concept of Western family law for hundreds of years. The test of legitimacy determined who belonged to a family and who did not. In principle, legitimacy entitled children to maintenance and inheritance from both parental sides. Illegitimacy did not unconditionally do so. This article reflects on why legitimacy appeared as a significant part of the ecclesiastical policy and legislation from the mid-twelfth century onwards and why legitimacy could remain an indispensable part of European family law for at least seven hundred years until the second half of the nineteenth century.

Beetham has recently made an impressive contribution to the understanding of Legitimacy which he holds to be central to both political and social theory. As a social science concept, capable of playing a significant part in the explanation of the workings and breakdowns of political systems, however, legitimacy so defined proves difficult, sometimes impossible, to apply and runs the serious danger of misleading explanation. The case against legitimacy is argued through a combination of theoretical and empirical considerations and in place of legitimacy a case is made for the experience of government behaviour and the capacity for collective action as the more fruitful foci of social theory.

This research note is a textual comparison between different versions of Deng Xiaoping's two speeches in May and June 1989 using recently accessible scanned copies of original documents distributed to local officials. It reveals numerous alterations—including both deletions and additions—in the later published texts. The research note suggests that in the context of the early 1990s, these editorial efforts were made to restore the legitimacy of the Chinese Communist Party by highlighting Deng's image as a pragmatic reformer, maintaining Jiang Zemin's position as the core of the new leadership, downplaying the party's internal struggles and corruption, and assuring people that China would continue its market-oriented reform. More broadly, findings in the research note showcase the essential role of propaganda in legitimation under the Chinese communist regime.

As they relate to the Supreme Court, institutional legitimacy and policy legitimacy have most frequently been studied in isolation. In this article, a holistic framework is proposed and examined. The political capital hypothesis holds that the Supreme Court can introduce institutional support in its efforts to generate legitimacy for particular policies, but that the Court risks its institutional backing by advancing controversial edicts. Therefore, institutional legitimacy functions as an expendable political capital with which the Supreme Court can confer some increment of policy legitimacy. Two experiments are conducted to test this dynamic, with results providing strong support for the hypothesized process of legitimation.