ABSTRACT
To what extent do autocracies1 depend on output legitimacy – meaning a belief in their legitimacy arising from the worthiness and actual recognition of their policy outputs and policy outcomes? Does output legitimacy even play an important role in autocratic regimes? Or are autocratic rulers content to secure their positions by means of repression and ideology (a view held mainly by the theory of totalitarianism2), but perhaps also through the addition of co-optation and preferential treatment for their “winning coalition”?3
