In political science, legitimacy is the popular acceptance of a governing law or regime as an authority. Whereas “authority” denotes a specific position in an established government, the term “legitimacy” denotes a system of government- wherein “government” denotes “sphere of influence”.
Political legitimacy is considered a basic condition for governing, without which, a government will suffer legislative deadlock(s) and collapse. In political systems where this is not the case, unpopular regimes survive because they are considered legitimate by a small, influential 61ite. Jonn Locke
The Enlightenment-era British social theoretician John Locke said that political legitimacy derives from popular explicit and implicit consent: ‘The argument of the (Second) Treatise is that the government is not legitimate unless it is carried on with the consent of the governed.”
The German political philosopher Dolf Sternberger said, “Legitimacy is the foundation of such governmental power as is exercised, both with a consciousness on the government’s part that it has a right to govern, and with some recognition by the governed of that right.”
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The American political sociologist Seymour Martin Lipset said that legitimacy also “involves the capacity of a political system to engender and maintain the belief that existing political institutions are the most appropriate and proper ones for the society.” The American
political theorist Robert A. Dahl explained legitimacy as a reservoir; so long as the water is at a given level, political stability is maintained, if it falls below the required level, political legitimacy is endangered.
In moral philosophy, the term “legitimacy” often is positively interpreted as the normative status conferred by a governed people upon their governors’ institutions, offices and actions, based upon the belief that their government’s actions are appropriate uses, of power by a legally constituted government.