Conflict and Control - Challenge to Legitimacy of Modern Governments

Art Vidich and his collague and student Ronald M. Glassman tackle one of the most significant issue facing all of us living on this planet - the legitimacy of modern governments. Addressing the legitimacy of government in the 20th century, the authors contend that the traditional assumptions of political science and sociology with respect to governmental legitimacy have been so shaken by modern developments in communication, administration and political ideology that the very basis for government must be reassessed.

This work is perhaps more important today than ever before as citizens in the United States and other nations contend with systems of power that are not supported by conventional systems of legitimacy. Watergate and many other failures of legitimacy are addressed in this important work.

Published in 1979, it remains an important work that provides a civic lesson for all those tasked with establishing a basis for political legitimacy of government.