ABSTRACT
We will start by looking at the notion of legitimacy and the state. As we discussed in Chapter 1, government is dependent upon legitimacy in one form or another. Without this it cannot function effectively or efficiently. Technology does not necessarily offer legitimacy, nor does it necessarily change the legitimacy of the state. But it may be a tool in acquiring, preserving, extending or losing that legitimacy. 5.2 Legitimacy and the State With the dominance of democratic concepts of government6 it might be thought that if the people believe that a governmental institution is appropriate then it is also legitimate.7 But this scheme leaves out substantive questions about the justice (or even the role) of the state and the protection it offers the individuals who belong to it.8 It is generally more usual for commentators to maintain that a state’s legitimacy depends upon its upholding certain human rights.9 This may be seen in
the use of such terms as freedom, democracy, rule of law, and tolerance, even in the constitutions of totalitarian dictatorships.10 Truly democratic states scarcely need to assert such principles (since they comprise the foundations of the constitution, formally or practically), yet they are rarely absent from modern constitutions.11 But the state is as much an economic as it is a social or legal construct,12 and it is important for its legitimacy and viability that the constitution remains broadly consistent with economic, and technological, realities.
