Realism and Political Legitimacy

Abstract

This panel explores the potential of realist political theory to offer new directions in thinking about political legitimacy in states characterized by pluralism and deep disagreement. As a way of theorizing that understands itself as an alternative to ideal liberal theory, realism emphasizes features of the political world – power, compromise, bargaining etc – typically neglected by liberal theory. Confronting the world as it is, realists consider how political actors can maintain, or generate, conditions of peaceful cooperation rather than propose high-minded principles of justice, which are often distanced from the real world. While it takes seriously the intractability of non-ideal circumstances, realism does not dispense with normative considerations. A key issue is how such normative considerations are to be grounded without reverting to ideal theory. Among the questions to be addressed in this panel are: What is the normative content of legitimacy from a realist perspective? How are the criteria of a realist understanding of legitimacy to be justified? What distinguishes it from the notions of legitimacy to be found in liberal political theory? How can realism avoid the charge that it is insufficiently resistant to the domination of the more powerful? While the panel focuses primarily on the potential of realism, it will also engage with the problems it faces and the objections of those skeptical about it.