A Study Of Lipset's Political Legitimacy Theory

Seymour Martin lipsett devoted all his life to the study of social conditions conducive to the consolidation and development of democracy.Through comparative analysis,logical deduction and institutional analysis,this paper attempts to further analyze and study li's discourse on legitimacy,construct a relatively complete theoretical system of legitimacy of lipsett,and make an objective and comprehensive evaluation of its legitimacy theory.First,his study of legitimacy follows the path of empiricism.Regarding social change as a vulnerable period of legitimacy crisis,the conservative forces need to maintain the continuity of important traditional integrated organizations and systems,and propose that the political system should actively give new social classes the opportunity to participate in politics.Secondly,it demonstrates the significance of mixing the three types of legitimacy to construct the legitimacy of the regime.On the basis of analyzing that the legal-rational legitimacy is more effective for the construction of the polity,it is pointed out that the legal-rational legitimacy foundation of the political system can be established through three aspects: stable and effective constitution,independent judicial system and perfect civil rights system.Thirdly,by explaining the relationship between political legitimacy and effectiveness,the paper points out that the construction of political legitimacy depends on the improvement of political efficiency,and regards economic development as the most important way to improve.At the same time,it analyzes the negative impact of the rapid economic development--extremism,and discusses the significance of education for political legitimacy.Finally,lipsett points out that conflict is an outcome that no political system can avoid and that multiple factors can trigger it.On the basis of dividing the conflict into four types,this paper explains the positive and negative effects of the conflict on political legitimacy and regards it as the blood of the democratic regime.On this basis,it is proposed to build an environment of cross-pressure to cultivate consensus,alleviate conflicts,control them within a certain range,and give play to their elastic role in the political system,so as to consolidate the legitimacy of the regime.At this point,the thesis constructs lipsett's theory of legitimacy.By combing and analyzing the related discussions on its legitimacy and examining the whole theoretical system constructed,it can be found that lipsett explored the legitimacy of democratic regime with a broad theoretical perspective and a comprehensive and dialectical way of thinking,inherited and developed weber's theory of legitimacy,and had his own innovation.However,his theory fails to get out of the dilemma of empirical legitimacy theory and ignores the study of ideology.