The Legitimacy of the State Power: Theory and Reality

The article is devoted to the issues related to the concept of legitimacy of the state power. This article analyzes the distinction between the theoretical approach to the legitimacy and the actual forms of its implementation. The author considers the methods of how public officers gain trust of people in their control and examines such a phenomenon as delegitimization of power. Legitimacy is regarded as a phenomenon historically inherent in the power and is not associated with democratic institutions of the modern society. The article raises the issues of legitimacy among the population of absolute monarchies and totalitarian rule. The legitimacy of the state power is illustrated by both the examples of past centuries and the most relevant events of modern times. In particular, the author applies the perspective of legitimacy to consider the situation in Ukraine and in Russia, the attitude of the population of these countries to the policies of the authorities. The article sets out and justifies the statement that the legitimacy of the state power depends primarily not on the degree of the population participation in the governance of the country, but on economic, social and ideological factors. The confidence level of electorate is determined by the well-being of the population rather than by degree of provided freedom. Almost in all historical periods average citizens and nationals of various countries Appreciated life in prosperity and security and confidence in the future ensured by the state more than abstract values inherent in a classic democratic system. Almost all modern domestic studies devoted to the legitimacy of the state po wer hold opposite opinions. Most authors argue that the state power can achieve the public support if it allows the citizens of the state to participate in governance processes to greater extent and if it provides for actual implementation basic democratic principles. The analysis of the real situation, with examples of different states that existed in the past and exist in the present, proves the opposite. The main purpose of this article is to review the prevailing approaches that developed in the domestic science mainly in the 1990s to issues of legitimacy and bringing the theory into line with practice.

the legitimacy, power, state, nation, democracy, population crisis, rating, ideology, delegitimization

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