0 past simple and past participle of legitimize --
1 to make something legal or acceptable: --
The government fears that talking to terrorists might legitimize their violent actions.
Since coercion should not be used arbitrarily, coordination by the state needs to be legitimized by the consent of its citizens.
The theory, in any case, proved singularly appropriate for a government that combined authoritarianism and co-optive oligarchy, legitimized by symbolic plebiscites.
According to institutional theorists, organizations are likely to adopt an innovation if their environment legitimized it.
By using religious motifs, they legitimized the opposition.
They also intervene once a policy is legitimized politically, for they are experts in setting up implementation schemes and procedures.
Political innovation that is not legitimized through a change of public sentiment is, on the other hand, likely to be forestalled.
It is also a principled move, which recognizes that democratic politics can also be 'civilized' and legitimized by feelings of cultural identification.
On the other hand, what is discursively cast as modern has often reproduced, rearticulated, and legitimized gender inequality.
