ABSTRACT
My fi rst aim in this chapter is to introduce the concept of legitimacy. I shall then describe and defend the Rawlsian approach to legitimacy and on that basis go on to argue for the importance of democratic procedures for political legitimacy. In section 2, I shall present a taxonomy that clarifi es the differences between alternative conceptions of democratic legitimacy. The overall goal of this chapter is to clear the ground, so that in the rest of the book I can build my argument for the particular conception of democratic legitimacy that I want to advocate.
