Legality versus legitimacy: a rousseauist perspective of the issue

Authors

  • Marcio Morena Pinto

Keywords:

social contract, general will, sovereignty, legality, legitimacy

Abstract

The most important theme of Jean-Jacques Rousseau´s Political theory exposed through the Social Contract is the belief that the State can only be legitimate if it has been sanctioned by the people in the role of the sovereign. The objective of this paper is to focus the concepts of legality and legitimacy according to Rousseau´s perspective, distinguishing them. For this purpose, some interpretations of these terms will be considered, in order to find in the concept of legitimacy adopted by Rousseau in the Social Contract any kind of relation with a moral value and a justice ideal which could not permit us to restrict legitimacy to the legality ambit, that is, the strict respect to the laws.

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Published

2013-12-10

How to Cite

PINTO, M. M. Legality versus legitimacy: a rousseauist perspective of the issue. Controvérsia (UNISINOS) - ISSN 1808-5253, São Leopoldo, v. 5, n. 2, p. 45–53, 2013. Disponível em: https://www.revistas.unisinos.br/index.php/controversia/article/view/6696. Acesso em: 4 may. 2025.

Issue

Vol. 5 No. 2 (2009)

Section

Artigos

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