Recently corruption, extremism and public distrust have raised questions over political legitimacy. In this book, Coicaud examines these issues.

1. What is political legitimacy?; 2. Controversies around political legitimacy; 3. Modernity, rationality of the social sciences and legitimacy; 4. Social sciences, historicity and truth; 5. Study of politics, relation to history and de jure judgment; 6. Community experience, dynamic of possibilities and political legitimacy.

Jean-Marc Coicaud is Senior Academic Officer on the Peace and Governance Program of the United Nations University (Tokyo).