Legitimate in translation from Latin means "lawful", "lawful". This term expresses the consent of the people with the government acting in the country when it recognizes its right to make important decisions without any coercion.
In addition, the concept of "legitimacy" has a political and legal meaning, meaning a positive attitude of citizens, large social groups (including foreign ones) to the institutions of political power operating in each particular state, recognition of the legitimacy of their existence.
Legitimacy is expressed in the voluntary recognition of the power in the country by the population. The people agree to submit to such power, because they consider it authoritative, the decisions it makes are fair, and the order of government that has developed in the state is the best at the moment. Naturally, in any country there were, are and will be citizens who break the laws; who disagree with the current government and the order of its administration and oppose it. Absolute support can never be achieved, and it is not necessary. Authority will be considered legitimate if it is supported by the majority of members of society.
Legitimacy is the confidence of the masses, their acceptance of power through the prism of public consciousness, and the justification of its actions from a moral point of view. Citizens express their approval of the authorities based on their ideas about good, justice, morality, justice, honor and conscience. Legitimacy ensures obedience without coercion, and if force is permitted when it is achieved, then as a justification for such measures.
The following types of legitimacy are distinguished: traditional, charismatic and rational.
Traditional legitimacy is formed on the basis of society's belief in the inevitability and necessity of submission to the current government, which over time acquires the status of a custom, a tradition of submission to power. This kind of legitimacy is inherent in hereditary types of government, for example, a monarchy.
Charismatic legitimacy is formed as a result of the formed faith of people, and their recognition of the outstanding qualities of a single political leader. This image, which is endowed with exceptional human qualities (charisma). It is transferred by society to the entire system of political power. The authority of the leader is unconditionally accepted by the masses of people. This type of legitimacy in most cases arises during revolutions, when pre-existing ideals are broken. People, unable to rely on former norms, associate faith in a leader with hopes for a brighter future.
Rational legitimacy arises in the event that society recognizes justice, the legality of those democratic procedures on which the system of political power is formed. This type is born due to the conscious understanding by each member of society of the presence of outside interests, which ultimately implies the need to create rules of behavior, the observance of which makes it possible to achieve their own goals.