legitimacy remains. A truly democratic political system has certain

characteristics which prove its legitimacy with their existence. One

essential characteristic of a legitimate democracy is that it allows

people to freely make choices without government intervention. Another

necessary characteristic which legitimates government is that every

vote must count equally: one vote for every person. For this equality

to occur, all people must be subject to the same laws, have equal

civil rights, and be allowed to freely express their ideas. Minority

rights are also crucial in a legitimate democracy. No matter how

unpopular their views, all people should enjoy the freedoms of speech,

press and assembly. Public policy should be made publicly, not

secretly, and regularly scheduled elections should be held. Since

"legitimacy" may be defined as "the feeling or opinion the people have

that government is based upon morally defensible principles and that

they should therefore obey it," then there must necessarily be a

connection between what the people want and what the governm

tends to get its way about 60% of the time. Because one of the key

legitimating factors of government is a connection between what it

to $10,000 per election to each House and Senate candidate"(Lind,

in theory the American system calls for one vote per person, the low

Some common words found in the essay are:
Legitimate Democracy, Peter Principle, Classical Liberals, Marbury Madison, House Senate, Power Congress, Court Justices, Imperial Presidency, War II, Senators Representatives, public policy, legitimate democracy, scheduled elections, regularly scheduled elections, regularly scheduled, public policy publicly, publicly secretly, elect president, allows people, seniority system, policy publicly, income education, policy publicly secretly,
Approximate Word count = 1488
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)