Legitimacy In Liberal Democracies 1st Edition Benjamin M Studebaker by Benjamin M. Studebaker 9781399534680, 9781399534710, 9781399534703, 1399534688, 1399534718, 139953470X instant download after payment.

In this book, Studebaker develops a theory of legitimacy to explain the crisis of liberal democracy in established democracies, like the United Kingdom and the United States. In these countries there is deep dissatisfaction with political procedures, yet no credible alternatives have emerged. Without alternatives, the crisis cannot produce revolution. Instead, Studebaker suggests that the disagreements that ordinarily lead to political violence instead proliferate throughout the state and society. As the distinction between legitimacy and ideology blurs, efforts to generate legitimacy instead generate greater inequality, pluralism, and gridlock. As different factions try to save democracy in radically different ways, diverse advocates of democracy get in each other’s way and even begin to appear authoritarian to one another. In Legitimacy in Liberal Democracies, Studebaker depicts a legitimacy crisis rife with state capacity problems, in which citizens tell each other many conflicting legitimation stories as they search for ways to live with a dissatisfying political system they cannot replace. The result is a legitimation hydra – a state that is burdened by an excess of narratives, that struggles to take any action at all.

Introduction: Methods & Approaches to the Study of Legitimacy

1. Legitimacy in the Mid to Late 20th Century

2. Theorizing Legitimation Stories

3. The Chronic Legitimacy Crisis

4. Resolving Chronic Crises

5. The Legitimation Hydra

6. Inequality as a Chronic Legitimacy Crisis

7. Despair as a Legitimation Story

Conclusion: Embedded Democracies in the Twenty-First Century

Notes

Index

Benjamin M. Studebaker received his PhD in Politics and International Studies from the University of Cambridge.