Democratic legitimacy and social discontent

Can social discontent undermine the legitimacy of a working liberal democracy? This paper develops an affirmative answer: Even when democratic elections are free, fair, and conducted under the best possible circumstances, they can fail to generate legitimate government. This is because democratic legitimacy also depends on the government being representative – a criterion that is grounded in complex empirical realities, including at least a minimal level of public acceptance of a political system.When this component is missing, the resulting unrepresentative democracies fail to attain the normative standing often automatically associated with democratic rule. The paper departs from the prevalent understanding of democratic legitimacy by including empirical considerations concerning attitudes and beliefs of citizens into its success conditions. As a consequence, the normative standing of democratic governments cannot be insulated from what their citizens actually think about them.