Legitimacy is a political and legal concept that refers to the positive attitude of a country’s residents, large groups, and public opinion—including foreign opinion—toward the institutions of power operating within a specific state, as well as the recognition of their legitimacy. Primarily, the legitimacy of power is essential for the power itself. It significantly conserves the resources of a bandit who has seized power.
If the people believe that they somehow supported this bandit, then the bandit needs to spend much less on maintaining power. Less on the police force, less on the army, less on the secret service, fewer bodyguards, and shorter motorcades. The legitimacy of a representative of power can be easily assessed by the proportion of the state budget allocated to the protection of that representative.
The Mayor of London rides a bicycle, while the President of Chechnya travels in 100 cars. This is despite the fact that London has eight times more people than Chechnya and generates incomparably more money. Once a bandit gains legitimacy, meaning the people’s belief in the bandit’s right to command, he becomes not only legitimate within the country but also a figure that can be dealt with on an international level. A legitimate bandit will be supported by the army, which means the army will protect the bandit from other bandits.
A legitimate gangster is someone who has authority and weight in the country. When an election campaign takes place in the United States, candidates for president are nominated at party conventions, where they secure the support of their party members. This means that legitimacy is already present among the candidates themselves. A significant portion of society genuinely supports one candidate or another. In the USSR, there is no system for legitimizing candidates. There hasn’t been a single presidential candidate in either the previous elections or the current ones who is truly supported by a noticeable part of the population. People voted not “for” a particular candidate, but “against” an even more repugnant alternative.
The lack of electoral legitimacy of Viktor Yanukovych led to the EuroMaidan. However, it is important to note that the emergence of the Maidan does not depend on individual personalities. The woman with the braid was just as illegitimate a candidate. This means that sooner or later, or rather sooner given Tymoshenko’s lack of professionalism as a manager, the Maidan would have happened anyway. In the electoral landscape of the post-Soviet space, all the leaders of the electoral campaigns are illegitimate candidates. They have no support from the people or even from their own public organizations that supposedly nominated them, if we exclude propaganda. This means that those who go to the polls will again be voting not for, but against. Therefore, a “Maidan” is inevitable in any country where there is no legitimization of candidates.