How Political Legitimacy Has Been Effected Over the Centuries

Political Legitimacy and the Nature of Authority Throughout History From the origins of civilization to the middle of the seventeenth century, the nature of authority does change -- but it typically changes according to the demands of the individual society.

In ancient times, authority is based on a number of factors, such as military might (in Rome, Greece, Persia); but religious beliefs also play a part (the Greeks were very devoted to the gods and goddesses, for instance); and so too does the political process (in Rome, they refused to have kings for a time) and in Athens, political authority lay in the democratic process (Haaren, Poland, 2000).

In the medieval age, authority is based on the combination of reason and faith and the assent of kings to the Roman Pontiff to allow the Church to have a say in the governance of Christendom, after Constantine allowed Christianity to come up from the catacombs and the pope crowned Charlemagne Holy Roman Emperor in the year 800 (Laux, 1933); and in modern times authority is based on Enlightenment science, as society moved away from the Roman Church following the Protestant Reformation and the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, which essentially introduced a new secular form of government, lauded by men like Voltaire (Elliott, 2009, p.

92). This paper will used three examples from each time to express how this is so. In ancient Greece, political legitimacy rested with the people. Athens was the location of democracy, where every citizen had a say in the government. The citizens moreover were educated by philosophers. Plato actually called for a philosopher-king to be a ruler of people, as he felt democracy allowed too many ignorant individuals to have a say in matters that were beyond them.

His Analogy of the Cave was a perfect example of where he thought political legitimacy should reside (Plato, 2003). However, Athenian democracy was the reality and served to show how government authority could be produced through direct participation of the people.

This concept was practicable because Athens was a city-state, and for larger nations and Empires, like Rome, authority took a much different shape (ancient Rome had a Caesar when it reached its height, and the realm was divided into territories overseen by governors -- thus, there was a hierarchical structure to it).

In both examples, however, religion also played a fundamental role in the government, as both Romans and Greeks only allowed their approved religions to be practiced in public (the Athenian powers put Socrates to death for teaching a new kind of religion) (Haaren, Poland, 2000). Religion continued to play a part in political authority in the Middle Ages. Beginning with Constantine in the beginning of the 4th century AD, Christianity was liberated and the Emperor's own mother Helena would later be declared a saint by the Church.

As the Roman Empire fell, Europe became divided until Charlemagne led the charge against the various barbarian tribes. He protected the Pope in Rome and for that reason the Pope crowned him Holy Roman Emperor, thus making even more visible the alliance between the Roman Church and the kings of Europe. Throughout the medieval era, the kings allowed the Church to have some say in the affairs of the political process, but the popes only had this say so long as the kings as a whole granted it to them.

If the individual kings chose not to listen to the pope, there was little the Church could do other than issue excommunications, if the offense was serious enough, and try to get others to help bring the individual back into line. This was the case with Henry VIII at the end of the medieval era (and a main reason the medieval era came to an end) when he decided he would be head of the church in England and make his own ecclesiastical laws.

He was excommunicated and the king of Spain (who was still loyal to the Church) sent his military to bring England into submission, but the fleet was lost at sea. Thus religion was a main seat of political legitimacy but only so long as the kings, through a combination of faith and reason (also known as scholasticism) and military power, assented to the pope's role in guiding governments (Laux, 1933).

In the early modern era, the seat of political legitimacy thus went to secular governments, following the religious wars that raged in Europe. The Peace of Westphalia in 1648 put an end to the Thirty Years War in Europe and it was enacted without any reference to the Pope at all. Thus the Church was boxed out of the political truce and the political process from that point on took a secular shape as states made decisions about government based on utility and political pragmatism.

This notion was supported by Enlightenment ideology, the concepts of men like Voltaire and Rousseau.