The concept of communicative legitimacy of power: a synthesis of theories

Annotation

The article presents the author's concept of communicative legitimacy of power, formulated on the basis of a synthesis of classical and modern theories of legitimacy. The relevance of the study is caused by changes in public policy in a digital society, in which trust in power increasingly depends on effective communication. The purpose of the study is to conceptualize communicative legitimacy as a dynamic process that ensures recognition of power through dialogue, exchange of meanings and mutual trust. To achieve the goal of the study, the following tasks should be solved: classical approaches (M. Weber, D. Easton, J. Rawls) and modern paradigms (cybernetic theory of K. Deutsch, poststructuralism of M. Foucault and P. Bourdieu, systemic functionalism of N. Luhmann, theory of communicative action of J. Habermas, theories of network society of M. Castells, social constructivism of P. Berger and T. Luckmann, cultural sociology of D. Alexander) are analyzed; their contribution to the concept of legitimacy is determined; a synthesis of approaches for formulating the concept of communicative legitimacy is carried out. The methodology is presented by a comparative approach that combines the ideas of different scientific schools and includes the principles of systemic, discursive and cultural-sociological analysis. The result of the study is the definition of the communicative legitimacy of power, which is defined not as a static property, but as a process of forming public consensus through communication. The culmination of the work is the presentation of the author's five-level concept of communicative legitimacy as a result of the synthesis of approaches to the interpretation of legitimacy by eleven authors. The new concept is designed to explain the stability of power through continuous dialogue with citizens in the context of modern challenges (digitalization, pandemics and other global crises), and therefore, can serve as a basis for further research on the issues of legitimation.

Keywords

• communicative legitimacy of power
• communicative rationality
• performance
• contingency
• diffuse support
• specific support
• conviction
• information management
• discourse
• symbolic capital
• network state
• objectification
• fusion
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