Political power and legitimacy: Types, functions and means of legitimacy

The study analyzes the relationship between the most important concepts of the political science, political power and legitimacy and evaluates the phases, definitions and critiques of the legitimacy in the history of political thought. It examines the political power's pursuit of social obedience before and after the theories of the moden state. This attempt is resulted in a two- type of legitimacy: the liberal legitimacy and the consructive legitimacy. The function of consructive legitimacy and the relationship between political power and society are discussed. These functions consist of the legitimization and justification of the status quo, the creation and exclusion of the "others", and the reconstruction of the society in terms of the social, economic and political engineering. The dissertation, in detail, examines and criticizes the means that the legitimacy resorts to justify the political power. The religion, mythology and ideology are defined as the constructive means of the legitimacy. The tradition, heroism, charisma, leadership, and nation are conceived as the preserving means of the legitimacy. The law, bureaucracy, technocracy, economy and science-education are conceptualized as the ordering means of the legitimacy.