Religion, political legitimacy, and complexity

Jared Rubin

Chapter 10 in Handbook on Institutions and Complexity, 2025, pp 190-204 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: This chapter lays out a belief-based theory of political legitimacy. Because political legitimacy requires common knowledge about who is legitimate and who can legitimate, it is useful to consider legitimacy as a (coordinative) complex phenomenon. Specifically, there are therefore two complex cognitive processes that must be addressed for an authority to derive political legitimacy: how to disseminate reliable information regarding who has the legitimate authority to rule and generating common knowledge regarding that information. A key contention of this chapter is that political legitimacy is enhanced when there are common knowledge beliefs regarding an authority's right to rule. This chapter considers how such beliefs are formed, how they are made common knowledge, and the role that religion and religious authorities have historically played in this process. A second key contention of this chapter is that religious authorities and institutions are particularly adept at fomenting legitimacy beliefs, especially among the Abrahamic, monotheistic faiths.

Keywords: Religion; Political legitimacy; Beliefs; Legitimating agent; Institutions; Complexity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781035309719
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