"Political Legitimacy and the Institutional Foundations of Constitutional Government: The Case of England"

Presented by Jared Rubin, Professor, Chapman University. 

Although the importance of political legitimacy is well recognized, the social sciences provide no conceptual framework to study its endogenous dynamics and implications. This paper develops a conceptual framework to study endogenous political legitimacy and its impact on political power, institutions, and policies. The paper builds on this framework to construct a context-specific model that facilitates a historical analysis of England’s transition to a constitutional monarchy. The analysis highlights the importance of legitimacy
and legitimacy-related actions in this transition. It provides a consistent and rational explanation for many historical observations that are unaccounted for by the predominant explanations for this transition.