More Security, More Legitimacy? Effective Governance as a Source of State Legitimacy in Liberia

What explains the legitimacy of state institutions in areas of limited statehood? In order to ensure effective governance, it is critical for states with limited capacities to establish the legitimacy of state authority. Yet, the sources of institutional legitimacy are not well understood in areas of limited statehood where legitimacy is often the only mechanism for the state to ensure compliance and cooperation of citizens. This article argues that in areas of limited statehood a state’s legitimacy among the domestic population crucially depends on whether that population feels safe and secure. We test this argument with an original survey fielded with 2,000 respondents from Liberia using multilevel modelling. Our results demonstrate that security perceptions of the population play a key role in strengthening state legitimacy at both the community and county level. We also find that explicit attribution of security to specific institutions is key for linking more effective governance with more legitimacy. However, security alone is not enough to acquire state legitimacy. Our analysis also reveals that states gain legitimacy when locals perceive institutions as just and elections as free and fair in addition to feeling secure. The results demonstrate that the sources of state legitimacy are multifaceted and that the provision of security is an important component thereof. Thereby, our study speaks to lates theoretical debates on the various sources of state legitimacy and contributes novel empirical evidence.