Legitimacy and the use of force: bridging the analytical – normative divide

By remaining epistemologically committed to an outdated distinction between facts and values, traditional definitions of legitimacy either divest the concept of an important critical component or fail to properly anchor it in the social reality. As an alternative, the article proposes a constitutive...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Bjola, C
Format: Journal article
Published: Cambridge University Press 2008
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author Bjola, C
author_facet Bjola, C
author_sort Bjola, C
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description By remaining epistemologically committed to an outdated distinction between facts and values, traditional definitions of legitimacy either divest the concept of an important critical component or fail to properly anchor it in the social reality. As an alternative, the article proposes a constitutive theory of legitimacy that reconciles the epistemological tension via the concepts of fairness and tractability and bridges the theoretical gap via the concept of deliberative legitimacy. By applying it to the issue of the use of force, the article argues that a normatively sound and politically relevant model of legitimacy must take into account both to the manner in which actors’ commitment to social norms is crafted and the type of conditions that facilitate or constrain the definition, contestation, and adjudication of what counts as legitimacy in a particular political context.
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spelling oxford-uuid:a8db07f7-6710-4672-bc32-6e74a03421f42022-03-27T03:04:25ZLegitimacy and the use of force: bridging the analytical – normative divideJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:a8db07f7-6710-4672-bc32-6e74a03421f4Social Sciences Division - DaisyCambridge University Press2008Bjola, CBy remaining epistemologically committed to an outdated distinction between facts and values, traditional definitions of legitimacy either divest the concept of an important critical component or fail to properly anchor it in the social reality. As an alternative, the article proposes a constitutive theory of legitimacy that reconciles the epistemological tension via the concepts of fairness and tractability and bridges the theoretical gap via the concept of deliberative legitimacy. By applying it to the issue of the use of force, the article argues that a normatively sound and politically relevant model of legitimacy must take into account both to the manner in which actors’ commitment to social norms is crafted and the type of conditions that facilitate or constrain the definition, contestation, and adjudication of what counts as legitimacy in a particular political context.
spellingShingle Bjola, C
Legitimacy and the use of force: bridging the analytical – normative divide
title Legitimacy and the use of force: bridging the analytical – normative divide
title_full Legitimacy and the use of force: bridging the analytical – normative divide
title_fullStr Legitimacy and the use of force: bridging the analytical – normative divide
title_full_unstemmed Legitimacy and the use of force: bridging the analytical – normative divide
title_short Legitimacy and the use of force: bridging the analytical – normative divide
title_sort legitimacy and the use of force bridging the analytical normative divide
work_keys_str_mv AT bjolac legitimacyandtheuseofforcebridgingtheanalyticalnormativedivide