The legitimacy of postrevolutionary power: principles and criteria

Social political crises and revolutions become more frequent in the new period of global turbulence. All revolutionary powers and regimes sooner or late meet the problem of legitimacy. The classical Weber's division of legitimacy is insufficient, and a new typology of legitimacy is suggested on the basis of evaluating agent (the popular legitimacy, the legitimacy of coercive force, the authoritative legitimacy, the international legitimacy) and on the legal basis (the legitimacy de facto and de jure, the last one includes formal legality and general legal legitimacy). The principles and criteria of revolutionary legitimacy are presented and discussed: relation to illegitimate repressive laws, conditions for the transition to armed resistance, the problem of provocations, conflict resolution between revolutionary center and a counterrevolutionary province ('Vandea'). It is shown how the fundamental legal principles and values of general significance (basic humanistic values) are used for legitimating of revolution in situation of formal legacy deficiency. Adapted from the source document.