Implicación

1.0 Introduction 2.0 Objectives 3.0 Main Content

3.1 Legitimacy

3.2 Legitimacy as a Factor of Stability of Government 3.3 Influence and Power

4.0 Conclusion 5.0 Summary

6.0 Tutor-Marked Assignment 7.0 References/Further Reading

1.0 INTRODUCTION

In the previous Unit, we were introduced to the basic and twin interrelated concepts in political science, power and authority. In this Unit, we shall conclude with the concepts of Legitimacy and Influence.

These concepts are subjected to a plethora of interpretations and certain misinterpretation and abuses, especially, for non-political scientists.

Care should therefore be taken in delineating these concepts and those of Power and Authority.

2.0 OBJECTIVES

At the end of this unit, you should be able to:

• to expose you to the basic concepts of legitimacy and influence in political science

• to help you to understand how legitimacy is the hallmark of stability for any government.

3.0 MAIN CONTENT 3.1 Legitimacy

Legitimacy refers to the extent to which citizens regard the state, its institutions, personnel or policies as morally right or acceptable. In other word, legitimacy is a belief in the right to rule. It is the popular acceptance or support given to a government irrespective of the method of coming to power. It refers to the positive attitude of the citizens toward authority positions and those who occupy them. But there has to

authority. So long as there is agreement about what is legitimate, politics and government can function smoothly. It therefore, means that where legitimacy is lost, agreements break down or are reduced to matters of expediency that can be broken when it is convenient. The consequences may be tyranny, revolution, secession, or some other form of break-up.

Legitimacy is the promise that the pursuit of one value will proof compatible with the pursuit or enjoyment of other values. We say that the pursuit of a value is legitimate if we have reason to expect that it will not inflict intolerable damage upon any other value which is also vitally important to us. For instance, it is legitimate to make money provided that this pursuit does not involve a great moral wrong or a serious loss of respect in our community or impair severely on our health.

Legitimacy is a relative concept. It is premised on the visible configuration to any political actor of his own set of values. It is a relationship among values within a situation that makes them compatible or puts them into conflict. Legitimacy may change with time and its place may also vary among groups and different views of legitimacy may lead to conflict among groups or may intensify existing conflicts. It is the vehicle for authority to be accepted by people which enables authority also to act with minimum costs; it cannot be forced out of the people. It must be given voluntarily by them because it has to do with emotions, feelings, and a sense of justice, which are not amenable to force.

Legitimacy can be sustained if it is based on justice. Whoever exercises authority must constantly justify its existence to the people. If it fails to convince the people about its adherence to justice it may lose its legitimacy. This is why leaders often justify their right to rule.

Immediately after a coup d’etat, the coup leaders must show how the previous regimes had violated tenets of justice thereby promising to be a new vanguard for moral crusaders who should be accorded legitimacy.

This is because legitimacy deals with whether or not the citizens accept the moral right of those in political authority to rule them. Only the citizens can grant legitimacy to the rulers. The holder of political authority must plead with the people through conformity with their cherished principles of justice, satisfaction of their basic material and psychological needs, an provision of adequate security for them, etc.

The stability of a political system depends on if the needs; its structure, beliefs, leaders and policies are acceptable to the people or at least the most powerful influence in the society. When the acceptance of any of these structures or objects is lacking, a declining sense of legitimacy creeps in, the regime relies on force, repression is increased and trouble

brews; a new regime either comes in or the old one manage to

re-establish legitimate rule. For example, open demand for secession reflects a declining sense of legitimacy of the state as perceived by the secessionists.

Legitimacy of a regime is not by election as some have argued. A democratically elected government may loose its legitimacy when such government adopts policies that are ‘anti-people’. Some unpopular governments have existed in different parts of the world without being toppled. They have simply relied on force to maintain their rule. And there are cases when elected and seemingly legitimate governments have been toppled. Nevertheless, the degree of legitimacy enjoyed by a government or authority is a barometer of its stability.

The people can accord or withdraw legitimacy of a ruler depending on their assessment of how just his rule has been or what policies he ought to be pursuing. Thus, a stable regime may decline into instability.

SELF-ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 1

What do you understand by Legitimacy?

3.2 Legitimacy as a Factor of Stability of Government

The concept of stability is useful in assessing the legitimacy of a regime.

Regimes are said to be legitimate to the extent that their citizens regard them as proper and deserving support. The political stability of any given government depends a great deal upon the legitimacy factor.

Legitimacy is a sine-qua –non for a stable political regime; if this is lacking the citizens may react negatively against such a regime. People are less likely to oppose their leaders if there is high regard for, or trust in the government, its institutions and policies.

Crisis of legitimacy may arise when the expectations, yearnings and aspirations of the people are unfulfilled by the political regime. Election represents one popularly accepted way of deciding who should rule.

They are ways of effecting peaceful changes of government, as opposed to the use of force, either by a general uprising of an aggrieved electorate or by a military coup d’etat. Since elections confer legitimacy on the government, where a government rigs the elections, intense frustration will be created among the losers. When elections are not free and fair, the resultant government lacks legitimacy and this creates situations of political instability.

Legitimacy is useful to those in authority. It does not only prevent reckless spending or mismanagement of scarce resources, it makes it easier for the government in power to tap the energies of its population

and mobilize its material resources to accomplish its objectives.

Besides, it discourages the use of force to regulate the society.

Legitimacy is fundamental to the maintenance of political order in society. Without it, political leaders constantly rely on force to maintain themselves in power, which alone may not be enough to preserve the stability of the political system.

SELF-ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 2

How Legitimacy does affect the stability of a government?

3.3 Influence and Power

At times, it is difficult to conceptualize influence because it has the same relational attribute as power. They differ, however, in the sense that the exercise of power depends upon potential use of sanctions, while influence depends largely on persuasion. Influence is a form of communication intended by A to affect the action of B in the absence of sanctions. For example, a father may warn his son:

i. “If you marry that girl, I will exclude you from my will” or ii. “If you marry that girl, you will be miserable for the rest of

your life”

The first statement depicts the use of power, while the, latter depicts influence. Influence has to do with the value position and potential of a person or a group of persons. The exercise of influence may rest on well-being, the physical strength, wealth, affection, enlightenment, i.e.

education, respect, etc. Influence therefore, depends on values, while power depends on sanctions. It is the threat of sanctions which differentiate power from influence. For example, “A” has influence over “B” within a given scope to the extent that “A” without resulting to the use of threat or of severe deprivations causes “B” to change his course of action.

We can speak of two types on influence.

a) Coercive Influence – this is based on threat, expectation of great severe physical punishment, torture, imprisonment and even death. Thus, according to Locke, political power is the right of making laws with penalties of death and other penalties.

b) Reliable Influence – This is an influence in which the probability of compliance is very high. It is authentic forms of influence, that is, legitimate influence,

Influence can further be sub divided into manifest and potential.

Manifest influence is the power plus influence. “A” can exercise manifest influence over ‘B’ to the extent that ‘A’s action causes a change in “B”s behaviour. Potential influence is a form of implicit influence, which Carl Friedrich described on his “rule of anticipated reaction”. This is a situation in which ‘A’ modifies his influence over

‘B’ because of what he thinks will be the reaction of ‘B’. In other words, it proposes that often a political actor will adjust its behaviour in light of what it thinks another might do.

SELF-ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 3

Differentiate between the two types of Influence.

4.0 CONCLUSION

Though the concepts of legitimacy and influence are easily confused, especially by non-political scientists, these concepts are analytically distinct. The stability of a political system depends on how people perceive the system to be legitimate. Regimes are said to be legitimate to the extent that their citizens regard them as proper and deserving support. The political stability of any given government therefore depends a great deal upon the legitimacy factor. Influence on the other hand is a form of communication intended by A to affect the action of B in the absence of sanctions. Influence therefore, depends on values as distinct as power which we argued in the preceding Unit as depending on sanctions. It is the threat of sanctions which differentiate power from influence.

5.0 SUMMARY

In this Unit we have examined the concepts of Legitimacy and Influence. The former we have argued is responsible for the stability of any political system while the latter is concerned with issues of values which are also important in the stability of a political system.

6.0 TUTOR-MARKED ASSIGNMENT

i. What are the factors that determine the legitimacy of a government?

ii. Conceptualize Legitimacy and Influence and show the distinction between the two.

7.0 REFERENCES/FURTHER READING

Anifowose, R. and Francis, Enemuo (1999). Elements of Politics. Lagos:

Malthouse Press Ltd.

Isaak, A. C. (1985). Scope and Methods of Political Science. U.S.A: The Dorsey Press.

Nnoli, O. (1986). Introduction to Political Politics. Lagos: Longman Nigeria Ltd.

Ologbenla, D. (1996). Introduction to Political Science. Lagos: Olucity Press Ltd.

UNIT 4 POLITICAL IDEAS AND MOVEMENTS