Legal Governments

[Skomatth]

I want to know what it means for a government to be legal. I'm reading a book called American Scripture and I came across this passage

The execution of its [the Second Continental Congress] decisions was frequntly delegated to local committess organized under the Continental Association of 1774, or to the governments of the various colonies, which in late 1775 consisted of extra-legal congresses or conventions that had assumed control after royal government collapsed, quasi-legal institutions such as those of Massachusetts, and, in Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania, the still-standing legal governments of the colonial past.

I have a basic idea, but I'm wondering if someone could give a precise definition.

[Byzantine Prince]

I guess a governement that abides to international law(whatever that is), or a government that is acknowlidged by major organizations.

[bmolsson]

A government is legal if it has the force to stay in power. That would be the practical approach to it.......

[King of Atlantis]

Well i believe somebody in america(president?) decides which governments to reconize, ex: we dont reconize cuba as a "legal" government. I assume it the sme in most countries.

[Kanamori]

I want to know what it means for a government to be legal.

I think a government would be legal if it were created, or modified, by an existing authority, or if it were created agreeably within existing custom or by a consensus.

I am fairly sure that, in this context, "quasi-legal" refers to the difference between the authority of "the people", congress, and the the established authority of the English Government. "Extra-legal" implies that some of the "representative" congresses or local governments weren't actually representative and definitely weren't approved by the English authority. I would reckon though that Pindar would be the best person to ask in this matter.

[Kanamori]

Bmolsson's approach would certainly be a practical definition though if the definition of "legal" was simplified to "right (to)"; which it often is, but I do not believe it is in the case of your quote.