Political legitimation in the German democratic republic

Henry Krisch

pp. 111-125

in: T. H. Rigby, Ferenc Fehér (eds), Political legitimation in communist states, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 1982

Abstract

"Legitimacy", according to one authoritative definition, "is the foundation of such governmental power as is exercised both with a consciousness on the government's part that it has a right to govern and with some recognition by the governed of that right".¹ But in the case of a revolutionary regime, only the former half of this necessary condition is initially likely to be present. Revolutionary regimes, especially in their "heroic", mobilisational phases, will tend to locate the source of their legitimacy in an ideological doctrine and policies derivative from it. The "recognition" of revolutionary authority by the "governed" is not sought from all groups in society, and not accorded to the regime by many (not necessarily the same) such groups.