Quote Originally Posted by M-A Lagrange View Post
Bob,

As you said, legitimacy lay in the hand of the people. So in COIN, as it is practiced nowadays, the question would be is it possible to build legitimacy? (And I do not have the answer).
The question may seems genuine as if you take the postulate that legitimacy is built through democracy then you run elections and you have a legitimate government.
But to that I see several constraints or contradictions:
- In recent past, we tried to build legitimacy by picking up individuals as our champions, gave them means to be elected but in fact did not make any real populace consultation as the democratic process was tricked at the early stage. So the legitimacy of the elected body is extremely questionable.
- If you have an elected body recognized by 51% of a population but controlling less than 49% of a territory: he is legitimate but unable to administrate.
- If the elites of a selected place do not recognize the democratic process as legitimate. You end up with a governmental body which is not capable to administrate and incapable to deliver services. Then you loose the capacity to enjoy its legitimacy.

A combination of those constraints may even make the problematic of building government legitimacy even more complex...

Frankly I neither understand, nor approve the trend in recent years (yes, this is new) to push for turning every government into a Democracy. To me it is in direct violation of our Constitutional and Declaration of Independence born principles; and is little removed from those who worked to spread communism in the past.

The best you can do is help to shape the conditions that allow a populace to shape their governance to the form they desire, and to bestow their legitimacy on the same. To attempt to control what that outcome may be, or who may lead it is to likely rob it of the very legitimacy it needs to succeed.

There is no perfect way to do this, but our efforts to control it are not helpful. To encourage and enable is good and noble, to control is selfish and makes our words and actions hypocritical.