The liberal democratic regime, which survived confrontation with the fascist and communist regimes, has spread throughout the world, but with the loss of its enemies, it has acquired the problem of creation of legitimacy and effectiveness by oneself. The crisis of the liberal democratic regime, which is unable cope with this, has been pointed out.

In this paper, noting the various countries where the liberal democratic regime has been consolidated, we discuss the transition of legitimacy and the concomitant repositioning of violence through the reconsideration of the various discourses of political theory that point out the transition of legitimacy, an element of the political regime.

First, we examine the discourses that have noted the transition of legitimacy in the liberal democratic regime. Specifically, we focus on the articulation of the legitimacy of liberalism and democracy; examine the discourses of 1) the undoing of democracy by neo-liberalism (W. Brown), 2) the crisis of liberalism due to populism, also referred to as the shadow of democracy (J.-W. Müller), and 3) the suspension of liberal democracy due to rules in the state of exception (G. Agamben); and discuss the transition from liberal democracy to another type of legitimacy.

Next, we examine discourses that point out the transition of the legitimacy of the sovereign or national state system (international political system), which is a prerequisite of liberal democratic regime. Specifically, focusing on the articulation of the legitimacy of sovereignty and nationalism, we examine the 1) disruption of sovereignty due to racism (M. Wieviorka), 2) ruin of nationalism due to cosmopolitanism (U. Beck), and 3) transformation of legitimacy due to the formation of a new form of polity, ‘Empire’ (M. Hart & A. Negri), and discuss the transition from sovereignty and nationalism to another type of legitimacy.

In addition, we discuss the transition of legitimacy based on the articulation of various discourses by dividing them into the three levels of national political regime, international political system, and the level of the intersection of international politics and national politics. Finally, we sketch the repositioning of violence associated with the “triple transition” of legitimacy and discuss the challenges that confront it.