ABSTRACT Establishing political legitimacy is a concern of all political regimes and leads to a range of legitimating techniques to suit particular circumstances and regime objectives. For Bhutan, the challenge has been how to legitimate a new democratic political order that did not result from citizen or elite pressure, the normal causes of democratic transition. This article addresses how legitimacy has been secured in Bhutan, a nation of “reluctant democrats”. It uses a methodology derived from an amalgam of longue durée and critical junctures to analyse the country’s unique process of democratisation, as some of the building blocks of contemporary democratic legitimation have old origins. By dividing Bhutanese history into four distinct periods and identifying four critical junctures, this article provides a full understanding of the nature and process of contemporary democratic legitimation. We pay special attention to the role of the monarchy in facilitating and securing acceptance of the new political order and in guaranteeing the monarchy’s future as a central pillar of that order. An important lesson of this article is the need to take a historical perspective when considering contemporary legitimacy as history reveals the building blocks on which today’s democratic regime legitimacy has been built and accepted.

中文翻译：

---

不丹不情愿的民主党人和合法化的挑战

摘要 建立政治合法性是所有政治制度都关心的问题，并导致了一系列合法化技术以适应特定情况和政权目标。对不丹来说，挑战在于如何使新的民主政治秩序合法化，这种秩序不是由公民或精英压力产生的，这是民主转型的正常原因。本文讨论了不丹这个“不情愿的民主人士”是如何确保合法性的。它使用源自长期和关键时刻的混合方法来分析该国独特的民主化进程，因为当代民主合法化的一些基石具有古老的起源。通过将不丹历史划分为四个不同的时期并确定四个关键时刻，本文全面了解当代民主合法化的性质和过程。我们特别关注君主制在促进和确保接受新的政治秩序以及保证君主制作为该秩序的核心支柱的未来方面的作用。本文的一个重要教训是，在考虑当代合法性时需要从历史的角度来看待，因为历史揭示了当今民主政权合法性得以建立和接受的基石。