The paper discusses the issue of the legitimacy of power as one of the key factorsto ensure the stability of government and the entire socio-political system ofstate. The starting point for the analysis is provided by the “neofunctional elitist paradigm”(as named by its creator) that has been developed for over thirty years byJohn Higley and his collaborators. According to this paradigm, an opportunity forefficient communication between the government elite and the most important opposition elite is one of the methods for creating a “consolidated democracy”, which, in the opinion of the authors of the paradigm, is the most desirable model of modern system of representative democracy.Further on in the paper, the history of the main issues related to the legitimacyand legitimization of power are presented using selected examples, primarily withreference to the main theoretical concepts of power and its legitimacy. The main partof the analysis concerns Poland and selected countries in this region, and the issue ofwhether it is justified to classify them as consolidated democracies. The author remindsof J. Higley’s opinion that Poland and Hungary witnessed negotiations betweenthe representatives of the former, socialist elite and members of the oppositionat the beginning of the process of political transformation. Owing to that, “consensualelites” emerged in both countries. The author also notes that the process oftransformation in this part of Europe (and in particular in Poland) is, in a way, ‘traditionally’ assessed much more positively by political scientists and sociologists from the West than by the academics (let alone journalists and politicians) in Poland. This favorable assessment is exemplified by their including Poland in a group of a few countries with a “consolidated democracy”.
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