Legitimacy is a central phenomenon in the realm of every organised society. Its existence is pivotal for the continued existence of structures of governance and political institutions like administrations and legal systems. The legitimation of a political system, or any other social system, is necessary to keep it alive without the use of force. A wide range of hypotheses exists which define legitimacy and try to explain how legitimation is produced by institutions, respectively lent by the subjects of institutions. The evaluation of hypotheses touches on different disciplines, ranging from economics, sociology and political science to psychology, and their various theoretical approaches, from rational choice via cultural theories and organisational studies to behavioural sciences. In this, essay I want to give an overview about the current academic discourse, concentrating on the most prominent and influential works. The paper presents several definitions of what legitimacy entails and how systems and institutions gain legitimacy. Following this review of the academic discourse this essay evaluates the working hypotheses against the backdrop of a particularly interesting empirical case: The case of the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRI), the local government system in India.
The Panchayati Raj System was aimed to be a tool for democratisation and development of the rural parts of India. The state of West Bengal was long time considered a model for a efficient and exemplary implementation of local self- government. Especially the early successes of the Communist government in land reforms and social justice during the late 1970s and the 1980s sparked academic interest in this model. This paper intends to examine this view on the base of a survey amongst the rural populace in the West Bengal district of Burdwan about the perception of the Panchayat institutions itself and their perceived performance. The aim is to prove or disprove West Bengals perceived model character by investigating the view of the ordinary citizen on the Panchayats and the impression he/she has about the institutions performance in various fields, e.g. infrastructure. The paper also looks into the roles of both leading political parties, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M) and the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC), in the West Bengal Panchayats and how these roles are perceived.