Governmental Legitimacy

While the reality of a situation is important, the perceived reality often plays a bigger role in how things play out. There is no better example of this than in whether or not a government is considered legitimate or not.

We live in a republic. That means we vote to put people in place who then make decisions for us. Often through a process of they themselves voting. However, most people perceive the United States to be more of a democracy. This is an important distinction. Because when we vote for the president we are actually not voting for the president. We are, on a state by state basis, offering a suggestion to our Senators and Congressmen on who to vote for.

The way the president is actually elected is by the elected members of the legislative branch voting for the president. That means there are 535 votes that actually count. The vote that happens in every state usually works where the candidate with the most votes from the people gets voted for by that states representatives in a winner takes all style. However, there is  no law stating that the representatives actually have to vote in any particular way. So it is possible that on election day the popular vote could be completely ignored and the Senate and Congress could just elect whoever they wanted to. Running or no. That would be unprecedented, but it would it would in no way be illegal.


A more likely scenario, and one that actually happened in 2000 in the election between George Bush and Al Gore is where the popular vote went for Gore, but the electoral college went for Bush. This was because of the unevenness of each states population and the number of representatives they have.

Regardless of how it happens though the electoral college offers many ways for "the people's choice" to not win. That is an issue. It is fine as far as being a legitimate way that republics run, but people don't see it that way. So why muddy the issue? Scrub the electoral college and just go with the popular vote. Then there is no risk of widespread unhappiness due to the "wrong" candidate winning. Even if it is perfectly above board and by the book. The government is only as legitimate as people think it is.