Authors: Duhamel & Mény
Summary: In about 660 words, the entry first traces the distinction between legitimacy and legality, since the former is based on right, reason or value, while the latter on conformity to law.
Legitimacy has different levels: it could be invoked by the politician - who must act in accordance to the contingencies he faces - or by the people, who appeal to the legitimacy of written codes (that is why it is sometimes possible to appeal to legitimacy against legality itself . history is replete of such cases).
Accordingly, Weber advanced his typology of legitimacy - as capacity to obtain obedience - based on charisma, tradition and legality. Similarly, to these three types of domination correspond three types of regime: monarchy, dictatorship and parliamentarism. Thus, the concept inevitably relates to "authority" and the debate about the priority of legitimacy (Plato) over legality (Hobbes). Western Europe democracies are cases of legitimacy based on rational legality.