Delegitimisation (also spelled delegitimization) is the withdrawal of legitimacy, usually from some

institution An institution is a humanly devised structure of rules and norms that shape and constrain social behavior. All definitions of institutions generally entail that there is a level of persistence and continuity. Laws, rules, social conventions and ...

such as a state, cultural practice, etc. which may have acquired it explicitly or implicitly, by

statute A statute is a law or formal written enactment of a legislature. Statutes typically declare, command or prohibit something. Statutes are distinguished from court law and unwritten law (also known as common law) in that they are the expressed wil ...

or accepted practice. It is a sociopsychological

process A process is a series or set of activities that interact to produce a result; it may occur once-only or be recurrent or periodic. Things called a process include: Business and management * Business process, activities that produce a specific s ...

which undermines or marginalises an entity by presenting facts and/or value judgments that are construed to withdraw legitimacy and can in some cases be a self-justifying mechanism, with the ultimate goal of justifying

harm Harm is a morality, moral and law, legal concept with multiple definitions. It generally functions as a synonym for evil or anything that is bad under certain moral systems. Something that causes harm is harmful, and something that does not is har ...

of an outgroup. The concept applies to a wide spectrum of social contexts ranging from disputes about political entities to

chronic illness A chronic condition (also known as chronic disease or chronic illness) is a health condition or disease that is persistent or otherwise long-lasting in its effects or a disease that comes with time. The term ''chronic'' is often applied when the ...

es.Arthur Kleinman, "The Social Course of Chronic Illness" in
Chronic Illness: From Experience to Policy
' edited by S. Kay Toombs, David Barnard, Ronald Alan Carson, p. 181

Definition, function and mechanisms

Delegitimisation is the process of constructing a "categorization of groups into extreme social categories which are ultimately excluded from society". Delegitimisation provides "the moral and the discursive basis to harm the delegitimized group, even in the most inhumane ways".The Oxford Handbook of Intergroup Conflict
edited by Linda Tropp, p. 31 Daniel Bar-Tal identified five

rhetoric Rhetoric is the art of persuasion. It is one of the three ancient arts of discourse ( trivium) along with grammar and logic/ dialectic. As an academic discipline within the humanities, rhetoric aims to study the techniques that speakers or w ...

al strategies by which delegitimisation occurs: dehumanisation (e.g. "uncivilised savages"), trait characterisation ("idiots", "parasites"), outcasting ("murderers", "terrorists"), use of political labels ("Nazis", "imperialists"), and delegitimisation by group comparison (e.g. with the

Huns The Huns were a nomadic people who lived in Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Eastern Europe between the 4th and 6th centuries AD. According to European tradition, they were first reported living east of the Volga River, in an area that was par ...

). Volpato et al. found eight delegitimizing strategies, including trait characterisation, political labels, group comparison, segregation, outcasting and using a delegitimised group to stigmatise another group. For example, images of derogated target groups were published in the

Italian Fascist Italian fascism (), also called classical fascism and Fascism, is the original fascist ideology, which Giovanni Gentile and Benito Mussolini developed in Italy. The ideology of Italian fascism is associated with a series of political parties le ...

magazine ''La Difesa della Razza'' in the 1930s. A process affecting actual beliefs rather than mere rhetoric is presumed to be at work however. An early controlled study published in 1960 showed that "serious and violent conflict can change previously held positive views of the other group" as in the case of the 1959 border disputes between India and China, eventually leading to the 1962

Sino-Indian War The Sino–Indian War, also known as the China–India War or the Indo–China War, was an armed conflict between China and India that took place from October to November 1962. It was a military escalation of the Sino–Indian border dispu ...

. "Before the dispute, Indian students considered the Chinese to be artistic, religious, industrious, friendly, progressive, and honest. But, as the conflict developed, the Chinese were

stereotype In social psychology, a stereotype is a generalization, generalized belief about a particular category of people. It is an expectation that people might have about every person of a particular group. The type of expectation can vary; it can ...

d by the same Indian students also as aggressive, cheating, selfish, war-mongering, cruel and shrewd." Bar-Tal found that the process mostly occurs in the cases of intractable conflicts and

ethnocentrism Ethnocentrism in social science and anthropology—as well as in colloquial English discourse—means to apply one's own culture or ethnicity as a frame of reference to judge other cultures, practices, behaviors, beliefs, and people, instead o ...

.Delegitimization
entry in ''The Encyclopedia of Peace Psychology'' edited by Daniel J. Christie. According to Bar-Tal, in these contexts delegitimisation is part of an unholy trinity together with beliefs in justness of own goals and collective self-victimhood.

History and examples

In 1975, "delegitimisation" became a kind of "

buzz word A buzzword is a word or phrase, new or already existing, that becomes popular for a period of time. Buzzwords often derive from technical terms yet often have much of the original technical meaning removed through fashionable use, being simply ...

" when then-U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations

Daniel Patrick Moynihan Daniel Patrick Moynihan (; March 16, 1927 – March 26, 2003) was an American politician, diplomat and social scientist. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he represented New York (state), New York in the ...

accused the international body of delegitimising Israel by passing a " Zionism is racism" resolution.Rosenberg, M.J
"Israel: 'Delegitimization' is just a distraction,"
''Los Angeles Times'' (US), July 17, 2011; Lis, Jonathan
"Livni: Delegitimization of Israel exacerbates other threats,"
''Haaretz'' (Israel). August 24, 2010; retrieved 2011-09-19. After United States President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

included the term in a 2011 speech, it developed wider international currency. The paired concepts of "legitimise" and "de-legitimise" have gained currency in discussions about nuclear disarmament.Blair, Bruce ''et al.'
"Smaller and Safer, A New Plan for Nuclear Postures,"
''Foreign Affairs'' (US), Vol. 89, No. 5, September/October 2010; excerpt, "These postures also perpetuate a mutual reliance on nuclear weapons that lends legitimacy to the nuclear ambitions of other nations"; ''compare'' Berry, Ken ''et al.'
"Delegitimizing Nuclear Weapons: Examining the Validity of Nuclear Deterrence,"

Monterey Institute of International Studies Established in 1955, the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey (MIIS), formerly the Monterey Institute of International Studies, located in Monterey, California, is a graduate institute and satellite campus of Middlebury C ...

. May 2010; retrieved 2011-09-20. Arthur Kleinman found that a patients with a

experience delegitimation when doctors treat their description of

pain Pain is a distressing feeling often caused by intense or damaging Stimulus (physiology), stimuli. The International Association for the Study of Pain defines pain as "an unpleasant sense, sensory and emotional experience associated with, or res ...

or other symptoms as exaggerated or even untrue.

Notes

References

* Berry, Ken, Patricia Lewis, Benoît Pélopidas, Nikolai Sokov and Ward Wilson
"Delegitimizing Nuclear Weapons: Examining the Validity of Nuclear Deterrence,"

. May 2010. * Clabaugh, Gary K. and Edward G. Rozycki. (1997). ''Analyzing Controversy.'' Guilford, Connecticut: Dushkin/McGraw-Hill. {{ISBN, 9780697343352
OCLC 37662714
* Volpato, Chiara ''et al.'
"Picturing the Other: Targets of Delegitimization across Time" (abstract)
'' International Journal of Conflict and Violence'' (Germany). Vol. 4, No. 2 (2010), pp. 269–287.

External links

* Brimmer, Esther
"Multilateral Cooperation Between The United States and Israel: Fighting Delegitimization, Moving Forward Together,"
Address at the

Washington Institute for Near East Policy The Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP), also known simply as The Washington Institute (TWI), is a pro-Israel American think tank based in Washington, D.C., focused on the foreign policy of the United States in the Near East. WINE ...

, June 15, 2011. Terminology Power (social and political) concepts Social influence

Definition, function and mechanisms

History and examples

See also

Notes

References

External links