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.
