Page 202 - Communication and the Evolution of Society

179 Legitimation Problems in the Modern State

disputed, in which, as we say, legitimation problems arise. One
side denies, the other asserts legitimacy. This is a process—Talley-
rand endeavored to legitzmize the House of Bourbon. Processes
of this kind were rendered less dramatic in the modern constitu-
;
tional state (with the institutionalization of an opposition) that
is, they were defused and normalized. For this reason it is realistic
to speak today of legitimation as a permanent problem. Of course,
in this framework too, legitimation conflicts flare up only over
questions of principle (as, for example, in 1864 over the bud-
getary rights of the Prussian Landtag). Such conflicts can lead to
a temporary withdrawal of legitimation; and this can in certain
circumstances have consequences that threaten the continued ex-
istence of a regime. If the outcome of such legitimation crises is
connected with a change of the basic institutions not only of the
state but of the society as whole, we speak of revolutions. (It
does not serve to clairfy matters when the Reformation or the
introduction of the mechanical loom or German Idealism are
called revolutions, thus inflating the term.)
Less trivial is the domain of application of the concept of
legitimacy. Only political orders can have and lose legitimacy;
only they need legitimation. Multinational corporations or the
world market are not capable of legitimation. This is true also of
prestate, so-called primitive, societies that are organized accord-
ing to kinship relations. To be sure, in these societies there are
myths that interpret the natural and social order. They fix mem-
bership in the tribal group (and its limits) and thus secure a
collective identity. Mythological world views here have a consti-
tutive significance rather than a subsequent legitimating signifi-
cance.?
We first speak of legitimacy in relation to political orders.
Historically political domination crystallized around the function
of the royal judge, around the nucleus of conflict regulation on
the basis of recognized legal norms (and no longer only through
the force of arbitration). The administration of justice at this
level establishes a position that owes its authority to disposition
over a legal system’s force of sanction and no longer only to
kinship status (and to the mediator role of the arbitrator). The
legitimate power of the judge can become the nucleus of a system