5. What gives state power its legitimacy?

Activity 1 - What is political legitimacy?

Activity Tasks

Examine - Read and make notes from Slides 2-5 of the Lesson Presentation on political legitimacy.
Discuss - With a partner, discuss this question: ‘By what authority does a government govern?’
Recap - Explain, in brief, what is meant by the Social Contract and how Locke and Hobbes differ in their understanding of this concept.
Identify - Distinguish between democracy and authoritarianism.
Connect - Choose at least two contemporary nation states and explain how the way in which the legitimacy of the state is created differs between them.
Analyse - Read this Guardian article on the way in which a personality cult has been developed in North Korea and explain how this contributes to the legitimacy of the North Korean State.
Debate - To what extent are democractic governments naturally more legitimate than authoritarian ones?

Activity Tasks

Discuss - What can cause a government to lose legitimacy? Discuss with a partner and make a list of reasons.
Rank - Now reorder your list of reasons from most significant to least significant.
Read - Read the following article on legitimacy issues in Hong Kong and China. What is argued are the main reasons for a legitimacy crisis?
Debate - To what extent can a government function without legitimacy?

Activity Tasks

Groups - Each group will research a different type of state. Choose between: minimal states, developmental states, social-democratic states, collectivised states, totalitarian states, religious states.
Research - Each group needs to answer the following questions which can be answered on this worksheet:
1. What is the role of this type of state?
2. What are the responsibilities of this state?
3. What roles do individuals have in this state?
4. How is political legitimacy achieved?
5. Which political ideologies and perspectives advocate for this type of state?
6. Examples of this type of state now or in the past?
Present - Present your findings for each question to the class. Record the answers to the questions for each type of state on your worksheets.
Discuss - Having studied different types of states, which type of state is the most legitimate?

Activity Tasks

Game - This simulation game called ‘nation states’ gives you the chance to explore how the way in which a state is organised impacts on the way in which governments can respond to different events and situations.
Aim - You have a week to see how high you can improve your countries ranking world ranking! Can you beat Uzbuddhistan?