CIVIL SOCIETY, AUTHORITY AND THE LEGITIMATION OF POLITICAL RULE
CIVIL SOCIETY, AUTHORITY AND THE LEGITIMATION OF POLITICAL RULE

Summary/Abstract: This papers focuses on the theoretical relation between civil society, the type of political order in which this sphere is integrated and the question of political legitimacy. In spite of their diversity, all theories of civil society have a common aim: to assess and to explain the functioning of a given social and political order. Theories of legitimacy (or legitimation) explore the connections and the evolving interactions between rulers and ruled within a political setting. Both civil society and the process of political legitimation are conceptualised in close relation with the type of arrangements that characterise a particular society (such as political and societal pluralism, hierarchical relations and distribution of power). This brief theoretical review addresses several approaches on civil society and the ways in which this sphere is connected to the state and its authority, as well as the place of political legitimacy in various approaches of civil society.

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