legitimacy

Do’s crimes, the prosecutors wrote, were “an assault on the very legitimacy of government.”

A broad and increasingly bitter gap has opened up between the US and Europe over the Gaza war, and over the legitimacy of criticising Israel's conduct.

For fascists, what the leader wants is more legitimacy than legality, because while the former was the result of a cult of heroism and leadership principle, the latter was regarded as artificial and even boring.

Doing so would lend a dangerous legitimacy to the corrosive behavior of the administration and its supporters when it comes to the rule of law.

So far, the arguments over constitutionality and legitimacy, over the process and the candidates have been bitter and fierce.