Legitimacy In The United States

Legitimacy enables a state to depend not on shear force or coercion, rather the idea of consent of the governed. Consent of the governed is a principle that goes back to the English philosopher John Locke, stating that a government's legitimacy and moral right to use state power is justified and legal when it is consented by the people or society that the power is being exercised over. Consequently, this makes legitimacy an integral component of any successful modern state. Various forms of political organizations can be affiliated with the few basic forms of legitimacy. Legitimacy has also transformed into a key to assist in explaining the rise and decay of electoral and authoritarian regimes. Said regimes can instruct states and construct
Freedom and equality are not correlated with legitimacy, meaning a country like North Korea can see themselves as legitimate. Other states most likely do not see North Korea as legitimate because their regime is very differentiated from a greater part of the world. States who see themselves as legitimate have a higher possibility of seeing countries with similar regimes as a legitimate state. For example, the United States wishes to disseminate democracy throughout the world because that is the political organization that the United States deems legitimate. If a developing country wishes to have great state power and legitimacy an advantageous plan for them would be to model their developing country after an already prosperous state. If a state would like to be viewed as legitimate by, for example, China, that state would be best off attempting to develop and government and regime that is most like China. Because China sees their communistic society as legitimate, if the developing state successfully rises, China will presumably see that state as
Before a state is tilted a failed state, they are considered a weak state: a state in which laws are haphazardly applied and corruption is widespread throughout the state. Currently, the states that are at risk of becoming a failed state are South Sudan, Somalia, and the Central African Republic, to name a few. What puts a state on the fragile state index? A number of factors come into play when determining whether or not a state is to be labeled as fragile. Legitimacy, uneven economic development, and external intervention are all key factors in determining the fragility of a state. The most fragile state on the list is South Sudan. South Sudan is a state that is enormously underdeveloped with little existing infrastructure. The autonomy and capacity of South Sudan are dangerously low. This new country is struggling to find its legitimacy which makes it and its people at a strain to succeed. All of the states that are on the fragile state index are struggling to find a regime and government to give them legitimacy within their state and outside of their