1. What is the legitimation of authority ?

Return to *History 8 Mesopotamia Notes

In order for forms of government to operate those in power must convince others not in power that they are worthy to rule and they deserve the authority given to them. This is called legitimation of authority. All forms of government have some type of legitimation of authority. All these governments also form their political theory on questions like: who deserves to be in power and why? Civilizations usually accept this legitimation of authority. Some examples of this can be tribal justification of chieftainship of the belief that there is some divine selection and that the ruler is some type of god. [[1]]

Queen Elizabeth with President Kennedy

Queen Elizabeth with President Obama

The United Kingdom still accepts Queen Elizabeth as their leader and ruler. The UK is a monarchy so the people of the United Kingdom accept that all of Queen Elizabeths present and past relatives are royal and should be in power. Queen Elizabeth has ruled since February 6th, 1952. She took her father's place after he died on the same day.

Sometimes justification of authority is not accepted by the community. This results in revolutions and this is called crisis of legitimation. When this happens, only two things can help the civilization, a change in the form of government/leader or a modification of the current ligitimation.

Mesopotamia Computer Exercise [[2]]

Elizabeth Awad