The aim of the article is to present the concept of legitimacy of power throughout history in philosophical, political, and legal thought. Particular attention is paid to confronting political and sociological views, which place emphasis on the social reception and acceptance of power, with the concepts of lawyers, for whom formal aspects are more important. The author also introduces the English-speaking reader to a different way of understanding the term ‘legitimacy of power’ among Polish researchers, which is a result not only of their original scientific concepts, but also of semantic differences between the term itself in Polish and English.