Changes Underway and Challenges to Political Legitimacy

The article argues that the relevance of the question of political legitimacy, already high in the context of politics in general, is deepened by the changes and challenges underway in contemporary politics. As such the article reviews eight challenges and what they mean for the future of political legitimacy: the challenge of integration and disintegration; the economic and financial challenge; the geopolitical challenge; the normative challenge; the technological challenge; the globalization challenge; the crisis of democracy challenge; and the governance challenge.