Personal Ends, Ideals and the Problem of Legitimacy

Legitimacy, in political philosophy, is related to the question of “why the rules of government should be abided by citizens?”, and in political sociology, it answers to “why the rules of government are abided by citizens?” In this paper, while reviewing the problem of legitimacy from the political sociology, the authors argue that satisfaction of citizens is in the core of the problem of legitimacy for political regime. It is important that the satisfaction is a mental and psychological factor that reflects the citizens’ needs. Though, some scholars dispute that the human needs are only their first needs, but human beings have other needs and Ideals which have direct impacts on legitimacy to be recognized. In spite of this, the government needs to divides the existent facilities between these two kind of needs and ideals, so the citizens’ satisfaction be realized. It is clear that division of the facilities between these two kind of needs and ideals, differ from one society to another. Non-conformity of the government policies with the needs and ideals of citizens may cause dissatisfaction of the citizens and consequently, the government would not be legitimated.