2015•The International Encyclopedia of Political CommunicationRequires access
Legitimacy, Democratic
John Parkinson
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Abstract
Abstract Legitimacy is the moralization of authority. Democratic legitimacy specifies that what makes the exercise of authority moral is that its source is “the people” in some sense; its procedures are democratic ones; and its outcomes clearly relate to the preferences of the people concerned. However, beneath that definition lie several controversies related to disagreements about the concept of democracy, and the relative weights given to democratic procedures versus good outcomes.