Legitimacy and Legitimation of Political Authorities

Bridging the gap between traditional and contemporary research, Andrea Lippi’s Legitimacy and Legitimation of Political Authorities presents a comprehensive and systematic analysis of both legitimacy and legitimation as two theoretical concepts, focusing on their respective roles in political systems today.

Through its use of empirical evidence and in-depth consideration of the pressing issues on today’s political agenda, this book adeptly navigates the political authority crisis, highlighting how the recognition and validity attributed to institutions is significantly in decline. Chapters explore this loss of credibility and trust, and how institutions are seeking to nurture their accreditation through new sources. Lippi incisively illustrates the relationship between statics and dynamics, as well as that between legitimacy and legitimation, and proposes a typology of the latter to be used in empirical research.

Adopting a multidisciplinary approach, this timely book will be a vital read for researchers, academics and students in public policy, international politics, public administration and management, and regulation and governance. Policymakers will similarly benefit from the applied nature of the text.