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International Online Training Program On Intractable Conflict |
Conflict Research Consortium, University of Colorado, USA |
Effective persuasive arguments must be seen as legitimate and must come from parties--individuals and groups--which are themselves perceived as legitimate. Kenneth Boulding, who was perhaps the most eloquent proponent of the importance of the integrative system, argued that legitimacy formed the core of that system. "Legitimacy applies to persons, to roles and occupations, to organizations, customs, habits, means of communications, institutions--indeed there is hardly any aspect of society the development and future of which are not profoundly determined by its position in the constantly changing structure of legitimacy." (Boulding, 1989; p. 113.)
How legitimacy is obtained and/or lost, however, is not well understood. One source of legitimacy is compliance with fundamental societal values and norms. If a leader obtains his or her position through a process which is generally regarded as "fair," if he or she fulfills the leadership role in a way that corresponds with general wishes and expectations of the people, then the leader is likely to have-and maintain legitimacy. If the leader violates common expectations, however, their legitimacy may crumble. U.S. President Nixon was one good example; Soviet Premier Gorbachev was another. They violated their citizen's expectations about the appropriate behavior of a leader, and eventually both lost their positions of power. Personal charm, or charisma, plays a role in legitimacy as well, however. U.S. President Reagan violated political norms in the Iran-Nicaraguan Contra scandal, just as much as Nixon had but Reagan did not lose his legitimacy as a result, as his charisma was much stronger than Nixon's.
Thus, one's legitimacy is a critical factor in the effectiveness of one's persuasive arguments. When persuasive arguments are made by people who are seen themselves to be illegitimate, the arguments also will be viewed as illegitimate. Likewise, effective persuasive arguments must be based on commonly held values and principles of fairness; otherwise, they are likely to be dismissed as self-serving, naive, unreasonable, or simply wrong.
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