The Position of Democratic Legitimacy and the Criteria for Identifying the New States Emerging in the Post-Cold War Era

With the end of the Cold War, a new chapter in relations between governments began. Among other things, the criteria that existed around the recognition of a newly established government were changed. Emphasis on concepts such as peace, democracy, self-determination and human rights caused democratic legitimacy to be proposed as a new element for the recognition of a government. This article aims to examine the place of democratic legitimacy in the field of government recognition. The hypothesis of the research is based on the fact that the criterion of democratic legitimacy has to a large extent been able to challenge the “exercise of effective power” which was the basic criterion for the recognition of a state in classical international law. The findings of the research indicate that with the passage of time, international actors, including countries and international organizations, have implicitly always included democratic legitimacy in identifying new governments more than in the past. The results of this study also confirm the fact that currently the position of democratic legitimacy in the identification institution is surpassing the criterion of effective control and the international instruments and mechanisms in this field, although implicitly, are trying to support it as much as possible. This article has been compiled by collecting and reviewing the documents and literature produced around the topic under discussion in a descriptive-analytical method.