On the Legitimacy of Representation during the Transition towards Democracy

• Author: Ioan Alexandru
• Position: Professor, PhD, President of the Centre for Academic Excellence, Romania
• Pages: 224-231

European Integration - Realities and Perspectives

2012

224

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On the Legitimacy of Representation

During the Transition towards Democracy

Ioan Alexandru

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Abstract: From the very beginning we need to mention the f act that legitimacy as a social fact does not

necessary coincide with the legitimacy that grants the legal character, although normally the doubts

concerning the legitimacy of an action, of a process, of an authority or of an institution represent the s ource of

mistrust and are questioning their legality. (Rosanvallon, 20 10, pp. 21-29) With other w ords, it is not enough

for a process to observe the regal requirements, nor for a qualified and legally authorized or recognized b ody

take a favourable decision. The legitimacy involves trust and total and active acceptance of the majority of

citizens towards the result of the actions of institutions and of the relevant public persons.

Keywords: democracy; legitimacy; institution; transition

It is true that the legitimacy of the modern state is based on the legal character of its actions but the

legality involves something more than a simple concordance o f the action of the state power with a

law norm in force. Legality may be considered as legitimate only if the legitimacy of the norm is

previously assumed. This means that the notion of legitimacy involves the acknowledgment of that

law norm as being valid and that practically it was and is still used by the members of the society to

harmonize their actions. (Serrano Gómez, 1994, p. 277)

In the reality of the social practice, given that the h omogeneity of the modern state is just a relative

presumption; the legitimacy is practically based on several types of criteria and arguments. For

example the so called “unwritten rules of the political system” that is the tradition that things were

always made in a certain manner. Such an unwritten rule is the acknowledged authority of a person

that issues an order, or an opinion; and from the tendency to observe any procedural legality which

acting based on the established, public and consensual regulations enjoys trust and credibility (the

assumptions of authenticity, of veracity and legality of the actions made by the public authority). In

this case, a crucial element is that the actions of the legal authorities, as well as the legal procedures be

transparent, credible and clear, especially in a social environment which does not excel by the

political-juridical culture.

In order to highlight the importance that legitimacy has in exercising the public power we submit

broadly an excellent definition of one of the most famous doctrine makers of the past century:

“Legitimacy represents the bridge between a political regime and its national community; and means

also the frame of convictions shared by that community, to which the capacity of governing is

transferred of any government from any State.

Or if preferable, it means the possibility of that government to lead a nd to be obeyed, being protected

by the real game rules which give a meaning to a political system: not only those written as laws, but

also the ones that allow the coherent inclusion of numerous recipes of social structures and the

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Professor, PhD, President of the Centre for Academic Excell ence, Romania. Corresponding author:

ialexandru05@yahoo.com.