Crossword clues for legitimacy
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Legitimacy \Le*git"i*ma*cy\ (-[i^]*m[.a]*s[y^]), n. [See Legitimate, a.] The state, or quality, of being legitimate, or in conformity with law; hence, the condition of having been lawfully begotten, or born in wedlock.
The doctrine of Divine Right, which has now come back
to us, like a thief from transportation, under the
alias of Legitimacy.
--Macaulay.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1690s, of children; general use by 1836; see legitimate + -cy. Legitimateness an earlier word for it.
Wiktionary
n. The quality of being legitimate or valid; validity.
WordNet
n. lawfulness by virtue of being authorized or in accordance with law [ant: illegitimacy]
undisputed credibility [syn: authenticity, genuineness]
Wikipedia
Legitimacy, from the Latin legitimare meaning "to make lawful", may refer to:
- Legitimacy (law)
- Legitimacy (political)
- Legitimacy of standards
Legitimacy, in Western common law, is the status of a child born to parents who are legally married to each other; and of a child conceived before the parents obtain a legal divorce. Conversely, ''illegitimacy '' (or bastardy) is the status of a child born outside marriage.
One consequence of illegitimacy pertains to a child's rights of inheritance to the putative father's estate and the child's right to bear the father's surname or title. Illegitimacy has also had consequences for the mother's and child's right to support from the putative father. See Affiliation (family law).
As of 2012, the proportions of children born outside marriage, taking the median across countries, range from some 66% in Latin America to 40% in the United States and the European Union, and some 5% in East Asia. In addition, the illegitimacy rate in Western societies is increased slightly by 1-2% of children who were ostensibly born to couples but were in fact covertly conceived by a different biological father.
In political science, legitimacy is the right and acceptance of an authority, usually a governing law or a régime. Whereas "authority" denotes a specific position in an established government, the term "legitimacy" denotes a system of government — wherein "government" denotes " sphere of influence". An authority viewed as legitimate often has the right and justification to exercise power. Political legitimacy is considered a basic condition for governing, without which a government will suffer legislative deadlock(s) and collapse. In political systems where this is not the case, unpopular régimes survive because they are considered legitimate by a small, influential élite. In Chinese political philosophy, since the historical period of the Zhou Dynasty (1046–256 BC), the political legitimacy of a ruler and government was derived from the Mandate of Heaven, and unjust rulers who lost said mandate therefore lost the right to rule the people.
In moral philosophy, the term "legitimacy" is often positively interpreted as the normative status conferred by a governed people upon their governors' institutions, offices, and actions, based upon the belief that their government's actions are appropriate uses of power by a legally constituted government.
The Enlightenment-era British social philosopher John Locke (1632–1704) said that political legitimacy derives from popular explicit and implicit consent of the governed: "The argument of the [Second] Treatise is that the government is not legitimate unless it is carried on with the consent of the governed." The German political philosopher Dolf Sternberger said that "[l]egitimacy is the foundation of such governmental power as is exercised, both with a consciousness on the government's part that it has a right to govern, and with some recognition by the governed of that right." The American political sociologist Seymour Martin Lipset said that legitimacy also "involves the capacity of a political system to engender and maintain the belief that existing political institutions are the most appropriate and proper ones for the society." The American political scientist Robert A. Dahl explained legitimacy as a reservoir; so long as the water is at a given level, political stability is maintained, if it falls below the required level, political legitimacy is endangered.
Usage examples of "legitimacy".
Pope Clement sent the noble Spanish Cardinal Pedro de Luna, well supplied with gold and magnificent gifts, to urge the legitimacy of the Avignonese papacy on the English.
Archbishop is taking seriously what was undoubtedly a fraudulent claim by Hugh Capet intended to cover him with Carolingian legitimacy.
In past eras, the leaders and ruling families of the Arab world could claim legitimacy from divine right, military conquest, traditional societal structures, descent from the Prophet, or Pan-Arabism.
Thus, Beijing continues to focus on the concept of multilateralism and the legitimacy of the United Nations as the best ways to slow or even disrupt U.
As neuropsychologists have striven to provide some coherent explanation of these effects in terms of brain structures and pathways, there have been attempts in the last few years to mimic the specific types of brain damage in humans by experimental studies with monkeys - experiments which have yielded valuable information about mechanisms and brain structures but have run into profound ethical conflicts about the legitimacy of deliberately damaging monkey brains in order to learn more about human brain processes.
The legitimacy of our government and our economy depend on the degree to which these values are rewarded, which is why the values of equal opportunity and nondiscrimination complement rather than impinge on our liberty.
Apart from the question of the legitimacy of the Greek dating of the sack, which seems to be at variance with the Roman data itself, the Varronian dates were thrown off by four years through the inclusion both of these desperate attempts to bring the list into conformity with the Greek dating of the sack.
The first half-century of Muro-machi times, 1336 to 1392, is also designated the epoch of the Northern and Southern Courts, inasmuch as Godaigo and his successors maintained an opposition Southern Court at Yoshino during this period that challenged the legitimacy of what it regarded as the puppet Northern Court of the Ashikaga in Kyoto.
Council for a Sound Economy and tens of millions more for think tanks, political action committees and the like, they constructed a nonpareil policy apparatus which reinvigorated the antigovernment movement with a new intellectual legitimacy backed by fearsome political clout.
Thus, for Saddam, giving up his WMD programs could create major threats to his regime by undermining its military power and its claims to legitimacy.
Great King as overlord and source of legitimacy, each of these dukes has received, in theory, his authority from the son of heaven, who does not exist.
The most immediate concerns of the Arab governments are not revolutions but undermining their own legitimacy by highlighting the fact that the regimes do not necessarily reflect the will of the ruled.
We took in with it, it will be noticed, not only the romance and gilding of chivalry and legitimacy, such as Scott gives us, but constant instruction in a society of ranks and degrees, orders of nobility and commonalty, a fixed social status, a well-ordered, and often attractive, permanent social inequality, a state of life and relations based upon lingering feudal conditions and prejudices.
The sewing machine and the baskets of fabric and the cardtable and the desk and the La-Z-Boy all kept their places, seeming each month to solidify their holds on their respective positions in the room and to further establish their legitimacy.
If he were, Elizabeth I's legitimacy would be in question since she became queen as a result of Henry VII's own violent accession to the throne (the killing of Richard at Bosworth Field).