Legitimate government
Topic: Democracy: Forms of Government, Principles and Outcomes · NCERT: Class 10, Ch 1 "Power-sharing"; Class 10, Ch 5 "Outcomes of Democracy"
Meaning
A legitimate government is one that citizens accept as their own. People accept it because they choose it, can control it and have a stake in it through participation. Class 10 NCERT says democracy may be slow and imperfect, but it is clearly better than the alternatives at producing such a government. Democracy's ability to generate its own support is itself one of its outcomes.
Example
The SDSA survey of 2007 found that most people in South Asia said "democracy is preferable": 70% in India, 71% in Sri Lanka, 69% in Bangladesh and 62% in Nepal, but only 37% in Pakistan.
Don't confuse with
- Efficient government: a dictatorship may decide faster. A legitimate government's decisions follow proper procedure, so people accept them more readily and they work better.