Operationalizing Legitimacy

Legitimacy is widely invoked as a condition, cause, and outcome of other social phenomena, yet measuring legitimacy is a persistent challenge. In this article, I synthesize existing approaches to conceptualizing legitimacy across the social sciences to identify widely agreed upon definitional properties. I then build on these points of consensus to develop a generalizable approach to operationalization. Legitimacy implies specific relationships among three empirical elements: an object of legitimacy, an audience that confers legitimacy, and a relationship between the two. Together, these empirical elements constitute a dyad (i.e., a single unit consisting of two nodes and a tie). I identify three necessary conditions for legitimacy-expectations, assent, and conformity-that specify how elements of the dyad interact. I detail how these conditions can be used to empirically establish legitimacy (and illegitimacy), distinguishing it from dissimilar phenomena that often appear similar empirically. Followed to its logical conclusion, this operationalization has novel implications for understanding the effects of legitimacy. I discuss these implications, and how they inform debates over the relevance of legitimacy as an explanation for socially significant outcomes.

Automated summary

Legitimacy is commonly used to explain various social phenomena, but measuring it remains challenging. This article synthesizes different approaches to conceptualizing legitimacy and proposes a generalizable method to measure it. By identifying three necessary conditions for legitimacy, the article offers insights on empirically establishing legitimacy and distinguishing it from similar phenomena. The operationalization of legitimacy has novel implications for understanding its effects and contributes to debates on its relevance in explaining significant social outcomes.