本杰明·康斯坦特区分了两种政府：基于暴力的非法政府和基于一般意志的合法政府。在欧洲，一千多年来，君主制被认为是合法政府的自然形式。其合法性的来源是王朝原则、宗教和抵御外国侵略的能力。18世纪末，美国和法国的革命对君主制的传统合法性提出了质疑，但沃尔克·塞林表明，为了应对这一挑战，君主制通过与宪政、民族主义和社会改革结成联盟，开辟了新的合法性来源。在某些情况下，革命时代催生了一种新型的领导人，他声称自己的权力建立在个人魅力之上。
Violence and Legitimacy
Benjamin Constant distinguished two kinds of government: unlawful government based on violence, and legitimate government based on the general will. In Europe monarchy was for over a thousand years considered the natural form of legitimate government. The sources of its legitimacy were the dynastic principle, religion, and the ability to protect against foreign aggression. At the end of the eighteenth century the revolutions in America and France called into question the traditional legitimacy of monarchy, but Volker Sellin shows that in response to this challenge monarchy opened up new sources of legitimacy by concluding alliances with constitutionalism, nationalism, and social reform. In some cases the age of revolution brought on a new type of leader, basing his claim to power on charisma.
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