Soft Subversion Engineering on the Basis of Delegitimization

Soft subversion through the creation of legitimacy crisis is deemed to be one of the methods of changing political systems without making use of military approaches which mainly inspire resistance. This method is utilized to annihilate a political system by gradually and imperceptibly weakening its underlying foundations of popularity and legitimacy. The main question here is “How is a political system overthrown by annihilation of its legitimizing foundations and decline of the public consent and obedience of the citizens? Drawing on the ‘Cognitive Adaptation’ theory and the role it plays in changing attitudes and behaviors in a target community, the present study explicates the delegitimizing methods including inducing government inefficiency, detachment of the elite, reduction of political participation, debasing governments and undermining the cultural and ideological foundations of a political system. Agents of soft subversion overthrow a political system by making use of such rules as management of perceptions and emotions and changing political taste.