1) Legitimacy is the political authority conferred by law or by a state or national convention. Legitimacy has increased through the Constitutional Convention because the succeeding administrations of George Washington, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson were preoccupied with disputes over the kinds of decisions that were legitimate for the federal government to make. This convention was called to revise the Articles of Confederation which were weak. Four months later a whole new constitution was written. The protection of life, liberty and property was their main objective as it was in 1776. Legitimacy has been increased through the constitutional convention because the US adopted a stronger way of leading the country which is known as the Constitution. Also, the Civil War showed the bloody struggle over the legitimacy of the federal union. The fight was over the rights of slaves versus the rights of slave-owners. Even though the south seceded from the Union, they still modeled their government on the U.S. Constitution. The civil war’s outcome was that the south couldn’t be slave-owners. This shows legitimacy because the nation slowly changed as segregation has been diminished. The north fighting the south is sort of a national convention but instead of it being a national convention, it’s a national war. Thirdly, FDRs New Deal called for an active government that would intervene in the economy, create social welfare programs, and help certain groups acquire greater bargaining power. Legitimacy was increased in that the government can now intervene deeply in the economy giving the US government more power.
2) Representative Democracy is defined as a government in which leaders make decisions by winning by a competitive struggle for the popular vote. All elite theories of politics may lead to the cynical view that politics is simply a self-seeking enterprise in which everyone is out for political gain. Marxism was founded by Karl Marx and he argues that government is merely a reflection of the means of production. The government is controlled by the dominant social class which is the capitalist class. The Power Elite theory was founded by Wright Mills and he argues that a power elite, composed of key corporate leaders, military leaders and political leaders, control and are served by government. The Bureaucratic view which was founded by Max Weber argues that power is mainly in the hands of appointed officials who are able to exercise vast power when deciding how public laws are to be turned into administrative actions. The Pluralist view has no single intellect parent; argues that no single elite has monopoly on power, hence all elites must bargain and compromise while being responsive to followers.
3) Two reasons the leaders feared the new plan is because 1) The ability to tax (the Revolutionary War was