Narratives of Legitimacy
Journal: Cambridge University Press eBooks
Year: 2014

Narratives of legitimacy include the highest-level justifications for states and regimes, narratives of divine right, narratives of electoral or democratic affirmation, narratives of conquest, narratives of historical entitlement. These narratives can seem solid and eternal yet history shows they are fragile and ephemeral, that they can vanish in a day. They are the product of myth, of past achievement and often of international accord and consensus. Shifts can come from changing global values,