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Home»Governance»State-society relations»Legitimacy

Legitimacy

State-society relations and citizenship

Topic Guide
  • Huma Haider with Claire Mcloughlin
April 2016

State-society relations, citizenship and socio-political cohesion are areas of great importance to statebuilding and peacebuilding and are crucial to an integrated approach. State-society relations are defined by DFID as ‘interactions between state institutions and societal groups to negotiate how public authority is exercised and how it can be influenced by people. They are ...» more

The legitimacy of states and armed non-state actors

Topic Guide
  • Aoife McCullough
August 2015
Somalia (UN Photo/Stuart Price)

Legitimacy is a crucial aspect of all power relations. Without legitimacy, power is exerted through coercion; with legitimacy, power can be exerted through voluntary or quasi-voluntary compliance. Legitimacy lies at the core of state-citizen relationships and thus of the whole state-building agenda. This Topic Guide explores the meaning of legitimacy in relation to state and ...» more

Education and building legitimacy during conflict

Helpdesk Report
  • Brigitte Rohwerder
March 2015

This rapid review summarises the available evidence of how far support to education has strengthened governance during conflict. The main points made by the literature on education delivery during conflict and strengthened legitimacy for those delivering it includes: Service delivery and state legitimacy: expectations for services vary and this has an impact on the ...» more

Legitimacy, statebuilding and conflict

E-Learning
  • Reading pack
  • Dominik Zaum
March 2015

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ejxkg9NkFc (This 10-minute presentation accompanying the reading pack was recorded at the GSDRC Seminar on Conflict and Development, London, 23 March 2015.) Building legitimacy is widely considered to be a central aspect of statebuilding efforts in fragile and conflict-affected states. It features prominently in the statebuilding policies of donors and the G7+ alike. In the…» more

State legitimacy in Afghanistan and the role of the international community

Helpdesk Report
  • Siân Herbert
January 2014

The literature identified through this rapid literature review highlighted a number of factors that support or undermine the legitimacy of the Afghan state, including: local governance structures; corruption; service delivery; legitimising ideologies of the Afghan state; accountability deficits; and the 2001 Bonn Agreement. In terms of evidence of international community ...» more

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