Chinese and Islamic Traditional Legitimacy Concepts

Traditional concepts that ground the legitimacy of rulers in a religious or cosmic order rather than in popular consent. An entry belongs here when its cited source describes a doctrine from a long-standing tradition that explains why a ruler is entitled to rule and what is expected of the ruler. The Mandate of Heaven is the Chinese principle that a ruler holds authority from Heaven and may lose it through misrule, and Shura is the Islamic principle of consultation in decision making. The group presents each concept as its own tradition describes it and does not rank traditions against one another.