Discourse and legitimacy: to a functional interpretation of discursive aspects of political legitimation

The problem of discourse and legitimacy is covered in the article through the prism of the systemic or functional theory of political legitimacy, which became famous in European political science in the early 2000 s. The author examines the main provisions of this theory, originally developed by German political scientist Fritz Scharpf in connection with the study of politics and political legitimacy in the EU countries and at the pan-European level. Later, they were applied by a number of authors (the article focuses on the works of Marianne Knoer) in the process of studying the mechanism of legitimation of power in the so-called neo-autocratic regimes (regimes of the «new wave of authoritarianism» of the early 21st century). The introduction of the concepts of input-legitimacy and output-legitimacy, as well as the related concepts of «identitarian narratives», «regime efficiency» and «mission», allows for a better understanding of the mechanism of legitimacy functioning (consent of the governed with the authorities) in neo-autocracies. In the article, the author tries to apply this approach to the study of the Russian case, analyzing the legitimizing aspects of the discourse of Russian power in the context of the formation and evolution of the authoritarian political regime.

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