Institutional and organizational dimensions of legitimacy of public power

Abstract

The article reveals the institutional and organizational dimensions of the legitimacy of public power.In the context of the Weberian tradition of understanding the legitimacy of order, it is determined that ensuring the legitimacy of individual political actors – individuals and organizations – is impossible without the legitimacy of the conventional and legal order. It is noted that not only the distinction between institutions and organizations, but also the refusal to reduce the whole organizational diversity of the “state” to a single actor is of utmost importance for ensuring the legitimacy of public power.It is emphasized that democratic rules of the political game should not just be declared by individual political players, but be recognized by the majority of citizens as at the level of convictions, and be implemented at the levels of daily life and political activity. This means that the social convention on the implementation of democratic institutions should become legitimate for all social activities and social relations. Using the Weberian category of “octroying”, another legitimate way of establishing a new order for the post-authoritarian regimes is demonstrated. It is noted that artificially established institutions (the rules of the game that operate in the societies of consolidated democracy) are often not effective in the post-Soviet space and do not always contribute to the legitimacy of power. At the same time, the “constitutionalization” of the political process, even if it takes place through a vote in the parliament or is passed in a referendum, does not ensure the automatic establishment of democracy and legitimacy of public power.Based on the distinction of institutions and organizations (D. North), there are shortcomings in both electoral democracy and the octroying of the legal order in terms of the theory of legitimacy. It is determined that one of the main tasks for post-Soviet societies is to establish the legitimacy of the democratic order, without which the transition from the electoral democracy to the consolidated one cannot be completed.The necessity of simultaneous institutional and organizational political transformations to ensure the legitimacy of the social order and public power under conditions of democratization in Ukraine is substantiated.