LEGITIMACY OF PUBLIC INTERESTS IN PUBLIC POLICY

Abstract

In various sciences, the term legitimacy is used with differing meanings. In practice, in law it is the legitimacy of the legislative act, in political science it is the legitimacy of power, etc. Even the term interest, or public interest,, is interpreted differently in various sciences (in law, economics, political science, etc.). In public policy theory, P. Rosanvallon’s understanding of democratic legitimacy proves to be productive, together with F. W. Scharpf’s input and output legitimacy, which leads to a differentiation between the input legitimacy of group interests and the output legitimacy of interests, legitimated by the public.

Keywords

• public interest
• legitimacy
• public policy