Larry Saha Room (Haydon-Allen 2175).

Andrew James Klassen
School of Political Science, Australian National University

Analysing Political Legitimacy: Foundations of Public Perceptions from a Needs-Based Perspective

Political legitimacy is fundamentally important but inherently problematic.  It is important because legitimate governing authorities usually resort to less repression and violence (to obtain compliance from those they govern).  It is problematic because there is broad agreement regarding the meaning of legitimacy, but considerable disagreement about how it is obtained. A widely agreeable definition of legitimacy would be ‘the right or acceptability of governing authorities to govern'. What justifies this right differs considerably through time and between societies.  Justifications range from elections, accountability, and effectiveness to hereditary rule, traditional customs, and divine right.  What people in liberal democracies often overlook is that elections are not universally necessary for legitimacy.  Subjects of authoritarian regimes often view their governing authorities as legitimate.  This presents a curious puzzle for understanding how legitimacy is obtained and maintained.

In this seminar, Andrew James Klassen will present a meta-theory of legitimacy based on human needs and their political equivalents.  The theoretical framework is based on a modified version of Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.  The central hypothesis is that legitimacy judgements are motivated by (1) people’s individual needs and (2) how well they perceive governing authorities to be fulfilling their political equivalents.  A match or mismatch between people’s needs and an authority’s performance should determine whether legitimacy judgments are positive or negative.  This will be illustrated by analyzing legitimacy in less developed, developing, and developed countries.  The meta-theory of legitimacy is a developmental model because it argues that what matters for legitimacy evolves over time as societies develop and people’s needs change.