Brian Cazzola Legitimacy and Stability Any institution such as a government must be legitimate in the eyes of the people or else it is destined to fail. Throughout the contemporary history of the past two centuries, the question of whether the ruling government was legitimate has played an integral part of the political structures of the United States and that of the Soviet Union. These republics both were born out of bloodshed and revolution, but …showed first 75 words of 721 total…

…showed last 75 words of 721 total…must be legitimate in the minds of the people. The Soviet Union collapsed because of a loss of this in their people. They no longer felt that their communist leaders had the right to command them to live their lives in the way that the party wished. The sources of power for the United States, the Soviet Union, and the Russian Federation are what separate the three in the realm of legitimacy of the people.