LEGITIMATION TECHNOLOGIES AS FACTORS OF POLITICAL MEDIATION

Abstract

This study explores the critical role of legitimation technologies in enhancing the effectiveness of political mediation as a mechanism for achieving societal consensus, resolving conflicts, and ensuring the stability of governing structures. Political mediation operates within the public sphere, fostering dialogue between citizens, authorities, and institutions to negotiate power, influence, and social cohesion. Legitimacy serves as both a prerequisite and an outcome of successful political mediation, granting mediators the authority to facilitate agreements and ensuring the acceptance of outcomes by conflicting parties. The study identifies and analyses key legitimation technologies – mythologization, symbolization, communicative, and value-normative technologies – that shape perceptions, mobilize public support, and construct shared realities necessary for consensus-building. Mythologization fosters emotional resonance through shared historical or cultural narratives, while symbolization appeals to archetypes and irrational aspects of human consciousness. Communicative technologies organize dialogue and reinterpret sociopolitical reality, while value-normative technologies instill norms and ideals that guide behaviour and legitimize decisions. Despite their potential, these technologies face challenges, including the risk of superficial agreement, manipulation, and the fabrication of consensus, which undermine genuine legitimacy and trust. The research underscores the existential importance of legitimation technologies in political mediation, demonstrating their capacity to transform polarized interests into cohesive societal frameworks. By integrating philosophical, hermeneutic, and cultural studies approaches, the study reveals the interconnectedness of cognitive, axiological, and psychological dimensions in constructing legitimate political mediation processes. Ultimately, the analysis highlights the dual nature of legitimation technologies as tools for both stabilizing governance and navigating profound socio-political crises through strategic communication and symbolic innovation.