Internal Tensions Of Political Legitimacy

Political legitimacy as an important concept in politics, not only has the positive meaning for analyzing and researching the realistic phenomena of politics, but also is the key question of political domination. Accordingly, numerous political researchers who concern this issue carry through the conceptual defining as well as the theoretical clarifying of political legitimacy. Although there are a lot of obvious differences and momentous divergences, the consensus as common understanding of the essence of political legitimacy still exist, that is, the concept represent the meaning of recognition or approval of political domination by members of given societies. Meanwhile, as the'essentially contested concept', namely the investigators stress different ingredients and factors of one concept owing to take a stand on different academic, political legitimacy becomes a concept with internal tension. The purport of this treatise rest with the attention of internal tension of political legitimacy, and with the combination of analyzing political legitimacy with some correlating analytical patterns of historical institutionalism's research approach by introducing the historical institutionalism as a analytical perspective, which in the hope of obtaining comprehensive and well-defined cognition, and which to a great extent ease up the tension of political legitimacy.This thesis contains four parts: Part one,on the basic connotation of political legitimacy;Part two,on the introduction and its meaning of analytical perspective of historical institutionalism; Part three,on the institutional intention of political legitimacy and dual idea directions of evaluation; Part four,on analysing the historical dimention of internal tension of political legitimacy.The institutional intention of political legitimacy contains three aspects: The first is semantic analysis of political legitimacy. This aspect points out the rich and varied connotation of legitimacy, and indicate the intention of using political legitimacy in this thesis. The second focus on the document analysis and combs several points of view of political legitimacy. By choosing and introducing some prevalent views of political legitimacy in western political philosophy and theories, we get a prerequisite and foundation for knowing the entire academic resources. The third explores the first level of internal intension of political legitimacy, which is indeed an'essentially contested concept'. As the essentially contested concept, compared with typical views of political legitimacy, the logical induction and essential analysis reveal that the typical views emphasis on different political practice, and that there exist differences in nature and basis of evaluation of political legitimacy.To show the meaning of introducing analytical perspective of historical institutionalism, it is necessary to examine two aspects: First, the characteristic of perspective of historical institutionalism. Second, the feasibility which combines political legitimacy with historical institutionalism. Analyzing political legitimacy from the perspective of historical institutionalism helps to build proper recognitory and elaborate framework, to provide necessary idea factors, and to bring political legitimacy into historical examining. Third, the requirements which the perspective of historical institutionalism for analyzing political legitimacy. We should pay attention to some aspects: the relations between actions and political practice; the effects of relations between behavior and idea factors on political evaluation; the historical analysis of these two points mentioned above.Understanding the institutional intentions and dual directions of idea of political legitimacy, is two recognition of analyzing political legitimacy from the respective pf historical institutionalism. This section contains three aspects: First, political authority and its institutional intentions. Political authority which as the objective core of evaluation of political legitimacy has the institutional intentions; those are layers of policy, constitution and political order. Second, the dual directions of evaluation of political legitimacy, which are dimensions of principle and ideal. Furthermore these dimensions make evaluation of political legitimacy to have two evaluation layers of utility and ethics. Third, the coexistence of varieties of political authorities and dual ways of evaluation constitutes the second layer of internal tensions of political legitimacy.To analyzing historical dimensions of internal tensions of political legitimacy aims at understanding and explanting the causes of why insights of political legitimacy are thrown to varieties of political practice, which would properly discuss the dynamic operations of evaluation of political legitimacy including factors of idea. This section contains three aspects: First, the modernity as the historical background. Modernity sets up the explicit of time period to understand intention of political legitimacy, furthermore the western political institutions as the objective core of evaluation of political legitimacy also locate in the evolving process of modernity. And we should notice that evaluation of political legitimacy would be introduced to the analysis which as the parts of historical background. Second, the historical evolving of western political institutions reveals the processes of layers of policy, constitution and political order. Third, the historical exploring of evaluation of political legitimacy focuses on the evaluations of utility and ethics, which as the expressions of principal and ideal as the dual directions of idea, then gives explicit explanations to these evaluations.