Aspects of legitimacy
By El-Sayed Elewa
Governments, rich and poor, face an increasingly stressful international situation. Continually changing points of reference have created a crisis of legitimacy, both internationally and domestically. Legitimacy is the fabric that holds political systems together, the mantle that allows people to accept a framework of laws, norms, and regulations. Humankind has known many forms of legitimacy: patriarchal, matriarchal, theological, constitutional, revolutionary, and contractual.
Conflicting legitimacies are today in close proximity. The forces of globalisation, and the gizmos of the communication revolution, rather than resolving tensions and turning the world into one global village have instead lent impetus to cultural and political clashes. To make things worse superpowers have fiddled with the very concept of international legitimacy to justify war and further vested interests.
Aghast at the viciousness of today's conflicts and the absence of a common framework of reference activists have called for alternative forms of legitimacy, based on human rights, public freedoms, civil society, and good governance. Ideologies, it seems, become less relevant by the day. Civil society and common humanity seem to be sensible alternatives. But however inspiring the alternatives the road ahead is long and winding. Right now governments face a choice between a democracy conditioned by social, cultural, and economic needs or one restricted by the international and regional context. Both are too narrow to accommodate the aspirations of people.
* This week's Soapbox speaker is professor of political science at Helwan University.
