The status of any nation, and indeed any institution, is defined both by its power and its legitimacy. Power does not necessarily extend legitimacy, either to a state or an institution, nor does legitimacy in itself confer power.It used to be claimed by Western analysts during the Cold War that while democratic Western societies had acquired both power and legitimacy, non-democratic nations may have power but do not enjoy international legitimacy.
An authoritarian, totalitarian or fascist state may command power but in the modern world it lacks legitimacy. Recent trends within democratic nations have brought this claim into question.
As the world’s most powerful nation and as a 250-year-old democracy, the United States enjoyed both power and legitimacy over the past three-quarters of a century. Today one sees a weakening of its power but an even greater weakening of its legitimacy — as a democracy. Our own republic has been able to gather more power over the past quarter-century — power in its various dimensions — but over the past few years its legitimacy as a democracy has been increasingly called into question.
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