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LEGITIMATION CRISIS
A condition during which a political order, or government, is unable to evoke sufficient commitment or sense of authority to properly govern. The government, or those in authority, is no longer seen as legitimate. Low levels of voter turnout in the United States, for example, may be seen as an indicator of a legitimation crisis as may the massive rejection of the Charlottetown accord in Canada when acceptance was recommended by most of the established political leaders in the nation. From a political economy perspective the major source of the legitimation crisis is the economic transformation of the world in conjunction with what is termed ‘globalization’. This transformation raises the possibility that citizens will see the economic system with its growing class polarization and impoverishment as illegitimate as well as the governments that attempt to regulate this new world economic order. See: GLOBALIZATION / EXCEPTIONAL STATE / .

Last updated 2002--0-9-


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Athabaca University ICAAP

© Robert Drislane, Ph.D. and Gary Parkinson, Ph.D.
The online version of this dictionary is a product of
Athabasca University and
ICAAP

*This social science dictionary has 1000
entries covering the disciplines of sociology, criminology, political
science and women's study with a commitment to Canadian examples and
events and names