Legitimation or legitimisation is the act of providing

legitimacy Legitimacy, from the Latin ''legitimare'' meaning "to make lawful", may refer to: * Legitimacy (criminal law) * Legitimacy (family law) * Legitimacy (political) See also * Bastard (law of England and Wales) * Illegitimacy in fiction * Legit (d ...

. Legitimation in the

social sciences Social science is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among individuals within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the field of sociology, the original "science of so ...

refers to the process whereby an act, process, or ideology becomes legitimate by its attachment to norms and

values In ethics and social sciences, value denotes the degree of importance of something or action, with the aim of determining which actions are best to do or what way is best to live (normative ethics in ethics), or to describe the significance of di ...

within a given

society A society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Soci ...

. It is the process of making something acceptable and normative to a group or audience. Legitimate power is the right to exercise control over others by virtue of the authority of one's superior organization position or status.

Power and influence

For example, the legitimation of

power Power most often refers to: * Power (physics), meaning "rate of doing work" ** Engine power, the power put out by an engine ** Electric power * Power (social and political), the ability to influence people or events ** Abusive power Power may a ...

can be understood using Max Weber's traditional bases of power. In a bureaucracy, people gain legitimate use of power by their positions in which it is widely agreed that the specified person hold authority. There is no inherent right to wield power. For example, a president can exercise power and authority because the position is fully legitimated by society as a whole. In another example, if an individual attempts to convince others that something is "right," they can invoke generally accepted arguments that support their

agenda Agenda may refer to: Information management * Agenda (meeting), points to be discussed and acted upon, displayed as a list * Political agenda, the set of goals of an ideological group * Lotus Agenda, a DOS-based personal information manager * Pers ...

. Advocacy groups must legitimate their courses of action based on invoking specific

social norms Social norms are shared standards of acceptable behavior by groups. Social norms can both be informal understandings that govern the behavior of members of a society, as well as be codified into rules and laws. Social normative influences or soci ...

and values. Invoking these norms and values allows the group to proceed in a rational and coherent manner with the expectation that their subsequent behavior is legitimated by the norms and values which guide their organizations.

Audience-based view

Sociologists and organizational ecologists have shown that legitimation originates from consensus among certain agents (an audience) on which features and behaviors of an actor (a candidate) should be viewed as appropriate and desirable within a widespread system of social codes.Zuckerman, E. W. (1999) “The categorical imperative: Securities analysts and the legitimacy discount.” American Journal of Sociology, 104: 1398-1438. An audience-based theory of legitimation posits that various social audiences develop expectations about what organizations can or should do and accordingly evaluate organizational action. Candidate organizations that pass the code test are legitimated in the social environment. One of the consequences is that they enjoy greater survival. Hannan, M. T., L. Pólos, and G. R. Carroll (2007) Logics of Organization Theory: Audiences, Codes, and Ecologies. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Early elaborations of this idea include attempts to understand the variations of codes across different audiences;Pontikes, E. (2012) "Two Sides of the Same Coin: How Ambiguous Classification Affects Multiple Audiences' Evaluations," Administrative Science Quarterly, 57(1) 81-118. the impact of code violation on organizational performance;Monin Philippe, Duran Rodolphe, Rao Hayagreeva (2007). Code and conduct in French cuisine: Impact of code changes on external evaluations. Strategic Management Journal, 28 (5). the role of the network connecting social actors and their audiences in shaping the formation and operation of social codes.Cattani, G., Ferriani, S., Negro, G & F. Perretti (2008) “The Structure of Consensus: Network Ties, Legitimation and Exit Rates of U.S. Feature Film Producer Organizations”, Administrative Science Quarterly, 2008, 53(2): 145-182

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Family law

Legitimation can also be used as a legal term where a father of a child born out of wedlock becomes the child's legal father. Prior to legitimation, the child is said to be illegitimate. Once a child has been legitimated, he or she is entitled to such benefits as ordained by law as he or she would if that man had been married to the child's mother at the time of the child's birth. (Some benefits are still withheld under various systems, such as the

British peerage The peerages in the United Kingdom are a legal system comprising both hereditary title, hereditary and life peer, lifetime titles, composed of various Imperial, royal and noble ranks, noble ranks, and forming a constituent part of the Orders ...

.) The father is responsible for providing support to the child and the child is entitled to inherit from the father. While legitimation can be as simple as a statement by the father, in some jurisdictions the father must officially recognise the child. This option is typically also available to non-biological fathers ("social fathers").

Canon law

Legitimation is a term in

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...

canon law Canon law (from grc, κανών, , a 'straight measuring rod, ruler') is a set of ordinances and regulations made by ecclesiastical authority (church leadership) for the government of a Christian organization or church and its members. It is th ...

to remove the

canonical irregularity In the canon law of the Catholic Church, an impediment is a legal obstacle that prevents a sacrament from being performed either validly or licitly or both. The term is used most frequently in relationship to the sacraments of Marriage and Hol ...

illegitimacy Legitimacy, in traditional Western common law, is the status of a child born to parents who are legally married to each other, and of a child conceived before the parents obtain a legal divorce. Conversely, ''illegitimacy'', also known as '' ...

for candidates for the priesthood.

References

{{reflist Family law Legitimacy law