Political Legitimacy and Democracy

An election can be held on schedule, votes can be counted correctly, and a government can still lose the public's belief that it deserves to govern. Democracy and legitimacy are related, but this topic exists precisely because they are not the same thing, and confusing them is one of the most common mistakes in this part of the module.

In two minutes

Democracy is widely treated as an especially strong source of legitimacy, because it grounds a government's right to rule in the freely given consent of the governed expressed through elections, but democratic procedure alone does not automatically guarantee legitimacy if it is captured, manipulated, or if elected governments consistently fail to deliver on their basic obligations.

The rest of this chapter

The full explanation, the cheat sheet, every previous-year question at every mark weight, the quiz and the answer skeletons are part of Political Science – II: Foundations of Political Obligation on LexBlox Semester. Sign in to unlock the subject, or read Module 1 of Legal Language and Writing free.