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Question
What is domestic legitimacy?
Answer
Whether a government's own people accept its right to rule — the inside face of legitimacy.
Question
What builds domestic legitimacy?
Answer
Fair elections, the rule of law, delivering services, and representing and listening to the people.
Question
What breaks domestic legitimacy?
Answer
Corruption, repression, rigged elections, and failing to meet people's needs.
Question
What is the rule of law?
Answer
The principle that everyone, including the government, is bound by the law — a source of domestic legitimacy.
Question
Why is the Arab Spring a good example?
Answer
People toppled long-ruling leaders they saw as corrupt and repressive — governments that had lost their domestic legitimacy.
Question
What happens when domestic legitimacy collapses?
Answer
People may protest, resist or rise up, and the government becomes dangerously unstable.
Question
Is domestic legitimacy permanent?
Answer
No — it must be earned and kept; a government that becomes corrupt or represses its people can lose it.
Question
Why is power without domestic legitimacy fragile?
Answer
Once people stop accepting a government, it rests on force alone, which is costly and can crumble fast.
Question
Domestic vs international legitimacy?
Answer
Domestic = accepted by a government's own people; international = accepted by other states and the world.
Question
Can a government keep power but lose legitimacy?
Answer
Yes — it can still control police and armies while its people no longer accept its right to rule.
Question
What is the foundation of stable government?
Answer
Domestic legitimacy — the willing acceptance of the people, not just the ability to coerce them.
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Topic 1.5 hub
Legitimacy
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