#legitimacy — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #legitimacy, aggregated by home.social.
-
Lieber Studies Indo-Pacific Volume – LOAC and Information Warfare in the Indo-Pacific
On December 7, 2026, world leaders will gather in Jordan for the High-Level Conference on …
#NewsBeep #News #US #USA #UnitedStates #UnitedStatesOfAmerica #America #China #Compliance #disinformation #Gaza #informationwarfare #legalwarfare #legitimacy #loac #psychologicalwarfare #publicopinionwarfare #ruleoflaw #Sari #SouthChinaSea #ThreeWarfaresDoctrine #UnitedStatesofAmerica
https://www.newsbeep.com/us/778350/ -
When democracy started sounding left-wing
Back in January, when I told my electrician that I would soon be working at the Israel Democracy Institute, he immediately said it sounded left-wing.
He did not know anything about the Institute’s research, its staff, its positions, or its history. He was reacting to the name. More specifically, he was reacting to the word democracy.
That moment stayed with me because his assumption did not strike me as unusual. In Israel today, the word democracy often arrives carrying political baggage. It can evoke Israel’s judicial-overhaul protests, the center-left, the courts, elite institutions, or opposition to the current government. A word that ought to describe the shared structure of political life has begun to sound like the vocabulary of one camp.
So the question is not whether democracy is left-wing. It is not. The question is how democracy came to sound left-wing, and what happens when a value that should belong to everyone begins to sound like someone else’s slogan.
A history that does not fit the label
The Israel Democracy Institute’s history does not fit neatly into the political category now attached to its name. Arye Carmon founded the Institute in 1991 with the support of Bernie Marcus, the co-founder of Home Depot and the Institute’s founding benefactor. Marcus was also a major Republican donor who gave substantial support to Donald Trump1.
Nor is the Institute’s connection to the political right only historical. Its honorary chair is Israel’s former president Reuven Rivlin, who spent his political career in Likud and served as a minister and speaker of the Knesset before becoming president2. Rivlin’s support for democratic institutions, civic equality, and dialogue across Israel’s social divisions did not make him a man of the left3. It reflected a political tradition in which a person could hold firmly right-wing views while also treating democratic principles as part of Israel’s national foundation.
Marcus and Rivlin show that the Institute’s democratic mission was neither created by the left nor confined to it. The assumption that an organization devoted to democracy must be left-wing says less about the Institute’s origins than about how dramatically the political meaning of the word has changed.
I know what I mean by my values
I have never believed that political camps should be allowed to define my values for me. I know what I mean when I call myself a Zionist. I know what I mean when I call myself a feminist. And I know what I mean when I say that I support democracy.
Each of those words has been stretched, narrowed, praised, attacked, and turned into a political signal. But a value does not cease to be mine because someone else uses it differently.
To support democracy is not to endorse every institution, ruling, protest movement, or political party that invokes its name. It is to affirm a system in which power is limited, leaders can be replaced, citizens are protected, and no governing coalition is entitled to treat electoral victory as a blank check.
Democracy may now sound left-wing in certain political contexts, but that does not make it an exclusively left-wing value.
Two meanings of democracy
Part of the confusion comes from the fact that democracy is not a single, uncontested idea. For some, it means above all that the majority chooses the government and that elected leaders must be able to carry out their mandate. From this perspective, courts, civil servants, and other unelected bodies can appear to obstruct the will of the people4.
For others, elections are only one part of democracy. Democracy also requires an independent judiciary, the rule of law, minority rights, professional institutions, and limits on the power of the majority. From this perspective, a government can win an election and still act undemocratically if it weakens the safeguards that prevent power from becoming absolute.
These two understandings often speak past one another. One side hears the word democracy and thinks of popular sovereignty. The other hears it and thinks of constitutional restraint.
How political language changes
Words acquire political meaning through repetition. When one camp repeatedly describes itself as defending a principle, while the opposing camp avoids the term or treats it with suspicion, the public gradually begins to associate that principle with the first camp.
Political leaders help drive this process. People tend to trust the language used by figures on their own side and to distrust the same language when it comes from their opponents5. Over time, the word itself becomes a cue. It no longer points only to an idea; it also signals who is speaking, which institutions they trust, and which political coalition they are likely to support.
This is how a value that once functioned as common civic language can become a partisan marker. It happens as repeated patterns of use teach people to hear a political identity inside it.
The American shift
In the United States, democracy was not always a word associated primarily with the Democratic Party. Ronald Reagan spoke comfortably about democracy, and Republican platforms once used the term as part of their own description of the American political system6.
The contrast with 2024 is striking. The Democratic Party platform repeatedly emphasized the defense and strengthening of democracy. The Republican platform did not use the word at all, relying instead on terms such as the Constitution, freedom, election security, and government by the people7.
Public opinion reflected the same divergence. Democratic voters were far more likely than Republican voters to identify the preservation of democracy as a central concern in the presidential election. Yet majorities in both parties still expressed support for democratic government in principle8.
The shift, then, was not simply that one party supported democracy while the other rejected it. It was that the word itself had become much more central to the identity and rhetoric of one side than the other.
Israel’s constitutional rupture
In Israel, the partisan coding of democracy accelerated sharply during the judicial-overhaul crisis that began in 2023. Opponents of the government’s proposals filled streets, bridges, and public squares with Israeli flags and signs declaring that they were defending democracy. Week after week, the word became visually and emotionally identified with the protest movement9.
Government supporters answered with a competing claim: the overhaul was itself democratic because it would reduce the power of unelected judges and restore authority to the representatives chosen by the public. In their telling, the protests were not defending democracy but resisting the outcome of an election10.
The conflict therefore attached the word to a specific political and social camp. Even people who had no detailed opinion about judicial appointments or constitutional design could see who was carrying the signs, organizing the demonstrations, and speaking most insistently in democracy’s name.
By the time the struggle became part of Israel’s ordinary political vocabulary, “democracy” no longer sounded merely like a description of the system. To many Israelis, it sounded like a position within the fight over that system.
When democracy becomes a party name
The formation of a new Israeli party called The Democrats made the shift impossible to miss. Created through the merger of Labor and Meretz, the party chose as its name a word that should describe the political system shared by all parties11.
The name was politically effective precisely because the association already existed. It appealed to voters who saw themselves as defending liberal institutions, civil rights, and constitutional limits. But it also reinforced the idea that democracy belonged to one part of the political map.
The party did not cause the word to become left-coded. It revealed how far that process had already gone. Once “democracy” can function naturally as the brand of a center-left party, it no longer sounds only like a common national principle.
What I saw at the Eli Hurvitz Conference
I work at the Israel Democracy Institute, and I attended this year’s Eli Hurvitz Conference on Economy and Society. Coalition politicians were invited, but not a single representative of the current governing coalition participated. I saw the imbalance firsthand.
I cannot know why every invited politician declined. But in an election year, one plausible explanation is that appearing at an Israel Democracy Institute event carried a political cost12. Coalition politicians may have feared that their own voters would interpret participation in a nonpartisan policy forum as a sign of association with the left.
That matters because their absence was not imposed by the Institute. It was the result of a political choice. A conference intended as a national forum appeared more politically one-sided because one side chose not to enter the room.
A cycle that confirms itself
Once an institution acquires a partisan reputation, political behavior can make that reputation appear increasingly accurate. Public figures who fear being associated with the other side stay away. Their absence changes who appears onstage, whose arguments are heard, and how the event is perceived from outside.
The resulting picture then becomes evidence for the original assumption. Observers see an institution populated mainly by figures from one side and conclude that it must belong to that side.
This is how perception hardens into political reality. A label shapes participation; participation shapes appearance; and appearance strengthens the label.
Why this matters
A democratic system depends on more than formal rules. It also depends on citizens recognizing certain principles as binding even when those principles frustrate their own political side.
That becomes harder when democracy is treated as the language of one camp. Courts, elections, civil rights, and limits on power are then judged less by whether they are legitimate than by whether they help or hinder a preferred coalition. Violations become easier to excuse when they are committed by allies and easier to condemn when they are committed by opponents13.
The danger is not only hypocrisy. It is the gradual loss of a shared standard. Once democratic norms are filtered entirely through partisan loyalty, there is no longer a common basis for objecting when power is abused.
Reclaiming the word
The answer is not to abandon the language of democracy, but to use it more precisely. The word should not function as praise for one coalition or condemnation of another. It should describe standards that apply regardless of who is in power.
That means asking the same questions of every government: Does it respect the outcome of elections? Does it preserve meaningful political competition? Does it accept legal limits on its authority? Does it protect the rights of citizens who did not vote for it? Does it permit institutions to perform their roles without being reduced to extensions of the ruling party?
A democratic commitment becomes credible only when it survives political inconvenience. It must restrain allies as well as opponents.
Reclaiming the word therefore requires separating democracy from political allegiance. It should name the rules under which the struggle for power takes place, not one of the teams competing within it.
Someone else’s slogan
The political meaning attached to a word is not the same as the value the word names. Democracy has not become left-wing simply because it is now invoked more often by the left, distrusted more often by the right, or attached to institutions that one side increasingly avoids.
The deeper problem is that polarization has made a shared constitutional value sound like someone else’s slogan. Once that happens, defending democracy can be mistaken for choosing a camp rather than defending the conditions that allow competing camps to exist at all.
I do not accept that surrender. Democracy does not belong to the left, the right, the government, the opposition, the courts, or the protesters. It belongs to the public—and it remains most necessary when those in power would prefer to treat it as optional.
Footnotes
- Home Depot’s co-founder and billionaire philanthropist dies at 95 ↩︎
- Reuven Rivlin ↩︎
- President Reuven Rivlin Joins IDI as Honorary Chair ↩︎
- Populism in Europe: An Illiberal Democratic Response to Undemocratic Liberalism ↩︎
- Elite Cues and Political Decision Making ↩︎
- Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, “Address to Members of the British Parliament”; American Presidency Project, archive of party platforms ↩︎
- American Presidency Project, 2024 Democratic Party Platform; 2024 Republican Party Platform ↩︎
- Gallup, “Economy, Immigration, Abortion, Democracy Driving Voters”; AP-NORC, “Most say democracy is important for the U.S. identity, but few think it is functioning well” ↩︎
- Tens of thousands join protests against Israeli judicial overhaul ↩︎
- ibid. ↩︎
- The Democrats ↩︎
- Israel’s parliament dissolves ahead of Oct. 27 elections ↩︎
- Democracy in America? Partisanship, Polarization, and the Robustness of Support for Democracy in the United States ↩︎
-
We have infrastructure for emotions — feeds, outrage cycles, viral moments. We don't have infrastructure for judgment.
No permanent mechanism through which citizens record how they actually assess those who govern them — not as a vote, not as a protest, but as a quiet, regular, verifiable signal. Between elections, that signal simply doesn't exist.
Teisond is building it.
teisond.com/journal/infrastructure-of-judgment
#civictech #democracy #legitimacy -
Archaeoethnologica: Power & Legitimacy in East Mediterranean / Poder e Legitimidade no Mediterrâneo Oriental
+INFO in: https://archaeoethnologica.blogspot.com/2026/04/poder-e-legitimidade-no-mediterraneo.html
#Archaeology #Protohistory #ClassicalArchaeology #IronAge #NearEast #Anatolia #Greece #Culturalcontact #culturalkoine #power #legitimacy #politics #lectures #talk #online
-
Archaeoethnologica: Power & Legitimacy in East Mediterranean / Poder e Legitimidade no Mediterrâneo Oriental
+INFO in: https://archaeoethnologica.blogspot.com/2026/04/poder-e-legitimidade-no-mediterraneo.html
#Archaeology #Protohistory #ClassicalArchaeology #IronAge #NearEast #Anatolia #Greece #Culturalcontact #culturalkoine #power #legitimacy #politics #lectures #talk #online
-
Archaeoethnologica: Power & Legitimacy in East Mediterranean / Poder e Legitimidade no Mediterrâneo Oriental
+INFO in: https://archaeoethnologica.blogspot.com/2026/04/poder-e-legitimidade-no-mediterraneo.html
#Archaeology #Protohistory #ClassicalArchaeology #IronAge #NearEast #Anatolia #Greece #Culturalcontact #culturalkoine #power #legitimacy #politics #lectures #talk #online
-
Archaeoethnologica: Power & Legitimacy in East Mediterranean / Poder e Legitimidade no Mediterrâneo Oriental
+INFO in: https://archaeoethnologica.blogspot.com/2026/04/poder-e-legitimidade-no-mediterraneo.html
#Archaeology #Protohistory #ClassicalArchaeology #IronAge #NearEast #Anatolia #Greece #Culturalcontact #culturalkoine #power #legitimacy #politics #lectures #talk #online
-
https://theconversation.com/donald-trumps-new-15-point-plan-is-the-biggest-sign-yet-that-washington-fears-it-is-losing-this-war-279001; https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/mar/17/joe-kent-resigns-director-national-counterterrorism-center. "The most immediate problem is lack of #legitimacy. This #war has authorisation from neither the #UnitedNations or, in the case of #America, the #USCongress. Further, #US #intelligence #assessments indicate #Iran was not rebuilding its #nuclear programme following earlier strikes - contradicting one of Washington’s justifications for war."
-
Lords a-leaving: Britain is ejecting hereditary nobles from Parliament after 700 years
"Centuries of British political tradition will end within weeks after Parliament voted to remove hereditary aristocrats from the unelected House of Lords.""On Tuesday night members of the upper chamber dropped objections to legislation passed by the House of Commons ousting dozens of dukes, earls and viscounts who inherited seats in Parliament along with their aristocratic titles."
https://apnews.com/article/uk-house-of-lords-hereditary-peers-expelled-535df8781dd01e8970acda1dca99d3d4
#aristocracy #nobility #privilege #democracy #legitimacy #parliament #British #monarchy -
A ‘just’ war?
‘We’re the good guys’: why moral storytelling doesn’t make the war on Iran necessary or legal"The Iran war reveals a dangerous shift in the way states justify their actions: a growing preference for moral storytelling over legal reasoning."
"Once the narrative of a “just war” replaces the rule of law, there is little left to restrain the powerful states from dominating the weaker ones."
"The purpose of international law is not to determine who is morally good; it is to maintain order in a world where every state believes it is waging the “good” fight." >>
https://theconversation.com/were-the-good-guys-why-moral-storytelling-doesnt-make-the-war-on-iran-necessary-or-legal-277952
#war #legitimacy #narratives #RuleOfLaw #Australia #law -
Is legal the same as legitimate: AI reimplementation and the erosion of copyleft
https://writings.hongminhee.org/2026/03/legal-vs-legitimate/
#HackerNews #legal #legitimacy #AI #copyleft #open-source #technology
-
A quotation from Ambrose Bierce
AUTHENTIC, adj. Indubitably true — in someone’s opinion.
Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?) American writer and journalist
“Authentic,” “Devil’s Dictionary” column, San Francisco Wasp (1881-04-09)More about this quote: wist.info/bierce-ambrose/82290…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #abrosebierce #devilsdictionary #authenticity #belief #bonafides #genuineness #judgment #legitimacy #opinion #perspective #trustworthiness #truth #verity
-
#usa #israel #palestine : #war / #gaza / #uspeaceplan / #board / #comment
„A vague mandate and pay-to-play model suggest it'll become a bloated boondoggle in search of an expanded mission lacking full international #legitimacy.“
-
"Island of strangers," Starmer
"Colonised by immigrants," Ratcliffe"Who makes the Nazis" Mark E Smith
-
https://purecaffeine.com/llm-logs/social-entropy-police-criminals.html
> Law, policing, and social order are information systems backed by force. When they work, they compress uncertainty: people can predict consequences, trust symbols, and coordinate behaviour without constant violence. When they fail, entropy shows up not as noise in a signal, but as moral blur, institutional drift, and legitimacy collapse ...
-
Here’s why #Minneapolis reminds me of what I once saw in Ukraine
Race & #citizenship — & the rights attached to them — inevitably shape how the public reacts
Yet the scale & intensity of the response point to something broader: a growing #crisis of #legitimacy for the #Trump administration, and the risks that crisis poses for #American #democracy
Watching #protests erupt in sub-zero temperatures across several states, often featuring personal vehicles as a tool of #resistance ...
[1/2]
-
“We should not allow the rise of hard powers to blind us to the fact that the #power of #legitimacy, #integrity, & #rules will remain strong — if we choose to wield it together,” #Carney added.
#Trump did not take kindly to those remarks of unity & dignity, responding with #threats in Davos before yanking the “Board of Peace” invitation.
“#Canada lives because of the #UnitedStates. Remember that, Mark, the next time you make your statements,”Trump said.
-
And he adores the #Gulf monarchies because they are swimming in cash, a form of #strength he respects.
This is the opposite of how American leadership has worked in the modern era.
The #US has been the world’s dominant #power for close to a century. But its leaders understood that primacy is not only about #coercion; it is also about #legitimacy, reassurance & voluntary cooperation.#US #Trump #MafiaState #geopolitics #law #InternationalLaw #authoritarianism #autocracy #tyranny #MadKing
-
DAVOS 26
"...With any semblance of a “rules-based global order...it’s problematic for lots of reasons, mostly because it is just unaccountable and there’s no real legitimacy to it.”
"The erosion of international law is not happening in the shadows,” António Guterres, UN secretary general.
"Global military spending now amounts to $2.7tn (£2tn), an annual increase of 9.4%, the steepest rise since the end of the cold war."
"...The number of private jet flights associated with Davos more than tripled between the 2023 and 2025 meetings, highlighting the climate impact of the annual shindig."
>
https://www.theguardian.com/business/ng-interactive/2026/jan/18/davos-2026-donald-trump-us-wef-world-economic-forum
#DAVOS #DavosMan #CorporateCapture #governance #legitimacy #law #MightIsRight #war #inequality -
”Claiming that this murder is somehow acceptable because the victim was in some way imperfect, all that does is legitimate killing us all.”
-Timothy Snyderhttps://youtube.com/shorts/J-6Nfpf3uvc
#minneapolis #ice #murder #excuses #legitimacy #timothysnyder
-
The US and Trump only want petroleum.
#venezuela #politics #geopolitics #propaganda #power #legitimacy #internationallaw #sovereignty #conflict #worldnews #perspective #media #discourse
-
Some sources, such as the comments on Trump's propaganda account on TikTok ("Team Trump"), suggested that Maduro literally invited anyone to capture him (Maduro gave loud and powerful speeches to encourage anyone to get him). So, for them, it is legitimate for the US to enter Venezuela to capture Maduro. Let me know what you think.
#venezuela #politics #geopolitics #propaganda #power #legitimacy #internationallaw #sovereignty #conflict #worldnews #perspective #media #discourse