Leland, John 181allegiance and respect. DIVINE RIGHT OF KINGS comes
from this MEDIEVALChristian perspective.
With the breakdown of monarchies in Europe
and the rise of popular REPUBLICANgovernments, the
social-contract school of thought based political legi-
timacy in the consent of the people. Legitimate gov-
ernment in Hobbes and Locke are those formed by
an agreement among the people (or social contract) to
set up a state or ruler to serve certain ends (mili-
tary defense, protection of NATURAL RIGHTS, social
peace, promotion of INDUSTRY, etc.). America adopts
this British liberal view of political legitimacy through
Thomas JEFFERSON’s Declaration of Independence
(declaring the British parliamentary rule in America
illegitimate) and James MADISON’s United States
CONSTITUTION, a legitimate social contract of limited
powers, republican principles, and democratic SOVER-
EIGNTY. Most Modern industrial democracies premise
state legitimacy in such popular election of lead-
ers, constitutional guarantees of individual freedom,
natural rights, and liberty. Rousseau extends this to
the radically democratic GENERAL WILL, or legitimacy
only through social consensus or COMMUNITARIAN
democracy.
MARXIST COMMUNISTtheory rejected this liberal view
of legitimate government, calling it the DICTATORSHIPof
the capitalist economic class. For SOCIALISTS, legitimacy
in the Modern industrial period of history requires
rule by the working class or the “dictatorship of the
proletariat.” Political legitimacy is determined by the
most progressive and oppressed economic social class.
This DIALECTICALphilosophy in Marxism (or CRITICAL
THEORY) challenges all traditional authority as illegiti-
mate unless it embraces radical EGALITARIANdemocracy
and communist economics. As V. I. LENINshows in the
Soviet Union, a minority political party can rule as a
“legitimate” TOTALITARIAN DESPOTif it embodies these
Marxist principles.
Twentieth-century ANARCHISMdenies any legitimate
state authority, seeing all governmental authority as
corrupt and oppressive. Communitarian democrats
such as Benjamin BARBERview participatory classical
democracy only as fully legitimate, given human social
nature. John RAWLSTheory of Justiceprovides a philoso-
phy of liberal American legitimacy that is based in a
Lockean constitutional republic and a social welfare
state. In Rawls, inequalities of wealth, authority, and
position are legitimate if they are open to all and serve
the common good. POST-MODERNIST thinking, like
anarchism, questions any legitimacy outside individual
perception and preference.
As long as order and government are necessary,
some basis for legitimacy will be required. People need
a sense that rule is fair and just, so theories of legiti-
macy provide that assurance.Further Readings
Connolly, W. E., ed. Legitimacy and the State.New York: New
York University Press, 1984.
Habermas, J. Legitimation Crisis,T. McCar thy, transl. Boston:
Beacon Press, 1973.
Hirschman, A. O. The Passions and the Interests.Princeton, N.J.:
Princeton University Press, 1977.Leland, John (1754–1841) American activist
for religious freedom
Rev. John Leland was active in the early Virginia and
United States CHURCH-AND-STATE controversies with
Thomas JEFFERSONand James MADISON. A BAPTISTminis-
ter, Leland worked in Virginia (1777–92) when the
Anglican Church was the legally established official
church in that British colony. As such, DISSENTERChris-
tians like Leland were persecuted by the STATE, fined,
imprisoned and humiliated. Leland led the Baptists,
PRESBYTERIANS, and Mennonites in their political effort
to achieve religious FREEDOMin the commonwealth. He
petitioned the Virginia legislature for laws disestablish-
ing the Episcopal Church, supported Jefferson’s pro-
posed statute for religious liberty, and urged James
Madison to ensure a Bill of Rights in the new U.S. CON-
STITUTION(especially the FIRST AMENDMENT, providing
for freedom of religious belief). As such, Leland tied
the rising EVANGELICAL CHRISTIAN population in the
United States with the emerging Jeffersonian DEMOC-
RACY and Democratic-Republican Party. The shared
views of EQUALITY, INDIVIDUALISM, and democratic gov-
ernment forged a coalition of farmers, workers, Protes-
tants, and southerners that dominated U.S. politics
from 1800 to 1840.
Leland’s political theory held that democracy was
the best system for both church and government.
Influenced by the English PURITANJohn BUNYAN, Leland
saw the individual’s personal relationship to God and
spiritual development best accomplished in a free
environment. A government dominated by ARISTOC-
RACYwould inevitably become corrupt, and a church
aligned with the government would be compromised.
As a radical Protestant, Leland believed in “the priest-