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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Hawkmoon who wrote (119938)	11/18/2003 9:44:52 PM
From: Sun Tzu	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

> Eligible voters, or people who actually bothered to vote? Well forgive me if I misinterpreted your definition, but it seemed you consider a government legitimate if it had the support of the majority of the people. Nowhere did you say the majority of the people who bothered to vote. The fact is that people can come to believe their votes do not matter because the system is rigged in such a way that it doesn't matter who they vote for. South Africa's apartheid regime was one example. Present day Serbia is another such a country. Closer to home, both X and I took that little test as to whom would represent us best. The closest a candidate came to getting our approval, assuming he'd stand by all his promises and would not back out of any of them, was 63%. Why would anyone vote for a person who barely represents them? And if there are enough people unrepresented, then does that government still have legitimacy?