The connotation of legitimacy and the historical evolution of Western political

摘要

the concept of "legitimacy" is the core of political theory, it born with the country, but find the systematic analysis about legitimacy theory starts from modern. In the process of research, scholars have gradually clear the concept of political legitimacy, and differentiate these two concepts of legitimacy and law. At the same time, since ancient Greece, in the different historical period, the study of political legitimacy theory has different content and features, among them, with these two factions: western modern normative theory and empirical theory as representatives. Here, this paper was on the basis of historical materials, combing the development of western political legitimacy, straightening out the relationship between legitimacy and the law, finding out the essential connotation of political legitimacy.