Legitimation is an important instrument of any political system of a country. It acts as a litmus test for the state’s power as the state has to pass the test as its very sustenance and continuation is dependent upon it. The political power and authority boil down to legitimation, which is acceptance of the authority of the state.
Also Read: Rights – Different Theories of Rights
Power and Authority – The Concept
State and Civil Society – Meaning and Characteristics
What is Legitimation?
Legitimation is nothing but legalization as it implies what is legal is legitimate, and what is legitimate is legal and is intrinsically related to the state. Legitimation is the very basis of the state, its strength, power, structure, and reason for existence emanate from legitimation. Authority is intrinsically related to power and it is based on the acceptance of the right to rule. Without authority, it would be difficult to rule, as acceptance of the people is vital for it. Max Webber terms it as ‘legitimacy’.
There are many exceptions to the fact that coercion is the only basis of the law. In the many areas of the law coercive aspect is not visible. The international laws are the most appropriate example of this. However, positivists view coercion as the essence of the obligatory nature of law. This view can be contested on some grounds like; many laws provide certain rights and power; thus, they did not impose obligations as maintained by the positivists.
Secondly, the law can be obeyed only when it has some sort of moral validity because without moral validity law would be just like that Jungle rule, where might is right prevails. According to Rousseau, our obligation to obey a particular law can be moral only when we are compelled to obey a system of law out of a sense of duty. Thirdly, the law does not operate in a vacuum as it must be viewed as part of the institutional system of the society. Whether it is a court or other social institution like the executive, legislature, and judiciary, they do not deliver verdicts or pass the law in isolation.
The whole system depends on the ends that it intends to achieve and it has noble ends like providing safe drinking water and ensuring the right to live, etc. If the law lives up to these obligations it would be given habitual obedience. Thus, it can be said that a law must combine the principle and policy as Dworkin has rightly maintained. The principle means the rights and the policy stands for utility. Hence, any law, to be called the true sense of the term, should have both utility and policy.
What is Obligation?
Obligation is also an important instrument of a state system. Thus, if a citizen wants to enjoy the rights as granted and sanctioned by the state, he is obliged to pay back in the form of performing some duties. It is not merely an obligation, but an essential condition for the enjoyment of rights. If we do not perform our duties, our enjoyment of our rights will be jeopardized. As the very enjoyment of the rights warrants the fulfillment of some duties and obligations.
Thus, duties are not mere obligations, but essential conditions of rights. As Baker has observed ‘the state is the immediate source of rights and the rights in any full sense of the word, are never rights unless they proceed immediately from that source. A citizen owes a debt of gratitude to the state for providing him with certain privileges that are essential for the growth of his personality. Hence, he is obliged to perform some duties to the state’.
Thus, legitimation and obligation are two important concepts of political science.