ABSTRACT
Legitimacy is a broad term, which is used differentially across disciplines (Coicaud 2002, Bottoms and Tankebe 2012). The roots of the modern discussion of legitimacy are usually traced back to the seminal writings of Weber on the social dynamics of authority (Weber 1968), in which he argues that the ability to issue commands that will be obeyed does not rest solely upon the ability to use power. Not only are there rules that people will voluntarily obey, there are also authorities whose directives will be voluntarily followed. Legitimacy is not something an organisation can demand; it is, as Merelman (1966: 548) puts it, ‘… a quality attributed to a regime by a population’.
