legitimacy

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)The quality or state of being legitimate or valid; validity.

   “The legitimacy based on a revolutionary essence was replaced by legitimacy with an ultranational, ultra-Yugoslav character.”

2. (broadly, countable, uncountable)The quality or state of being legitimate or valid; validity.

   “Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. warned that if the court failed to stop the president, its own “institutional legitimacy” would be threatened.”

   “After decades of inequality and oppression, the regime had lost legitimacy with its own population.”

   “The fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 was seen by many as proof of capitalism’s legitimacy over communism.”

   “Democracy’s legitimacy stems from the consent of the governed.”

3. (countable, uncountable)Lawfulness of birth or origin; directness of descent as affecting the royal succession.