Lecture ’Governance Legitimacy through the Lens of Human and Minority Rights’

Organized by the SASA Board for the Study of National Minorities and Human Rights, Dr Zoran Lutovac will deliver a lecture titled ’Governance Legitimacy through the Lens of Human and Minority Rights’ on Tuesday, 8 April, at 12.30 at the SASA Hall 2.

As outlined in the lecture abstract, legitimacy fundamentally reflects the need for a political system i.e. some government to rest on the voluntary acceptance by members of the political community, that is on their support while from the perspective of those governed, the system and government must be worthy of the support they receive or seek to obtain.

Legitimacy has always served a double purpose: on the one side, it facilitates governance, and on the other, it lessens the burden on those being ruled over. The contemporary age has brought liberal democratic systems as role models of developed democracies. A government has democratic legitimacy if it enjoys the support of the electorate, adheres to procedural legitimacy and upholds a general value system in which human rights take up one of the central places. Human rights and freedoms are the pillars of a democratic community and cannot be subject to electoral decisions or contingent upon political outcomes.