5 ms·
Legitimacy is actually made out of guns.
by anonymoushn 16y ago
Legitimacy is actually made out of guns.
- tomjen3 16y agoNo it is made out of consent of the ruled. The moment they loose consent they become the oppressors.
- Deestan 16y agoBeing oppressive doesn't remove your legitimacy. As long as you can hold on to being the government (guns!), you make the laws and are by definition legitimacy itself.
- r00fus 16y agoDon't confuse power and legitimacy. This is one of the major reasons why India isn't ruled by the British now. British had power, Gandhi and the peaceful revolutionists had legitimacy... guns can only project so much power.
- mvalle 16y agoGuns are the only form of power. Sometimes you just don't have enough guns.
- calpaterson 16y agoYou might say that morally it should come from consent, but descriptively, legitimacy comes from having a monopoly on force and not being totally, utterly hated.
- getsat 16y agoLegitimacy comes from: Democracy, e.g., election as described by customs or laws Tradition, e.g., a monarch's son becoming the next monarch Charisma, e.g., a charismatic leader such as a tribe leader, dictators like Hitler, etc. The military junta currently running Burma/Myanmar has a lot of guns, but it is not legitimate.