Political Legitimacy

Political Legitimacy and Water The strength and proper operation of any type of political administration, whether that be democratic or representative, relies on the combination of the ability of rulers and government officials to use coercion and the establishment of political legitimacy. Political legitimacy is when the entire political system and the decisions of their rulers are recognized by the people and the rules are accepted for their validity. Political systems that have high political legitimacy can be expected to be quick to recover from periods of crisis due to high resilience. Rulers and authorities in these political systems that have a considerable level of political legitimacy will be able to make decisions and commit resources …show more content…
So many different sectors of the environment, economy, and society rely on water. In the primary sector, water is used for agriculture while in the secondary and tertiary sectors it is used for mineral processing, apparel and electronics. Shortage of water or poor water quality risks instability in all of the sectors which in return leads to a less politically legitimate nation due to economic and social restraints. In many regions of Latin America, scarcity of fresh water is a continuously increasing problem. Most of Latin America is arid to moderate climate with a few exceptions. This means that water resources are difficult enough to come by let alone have that water be drinkable. Quality of natural water has been rendered by pollution and caused them to be unsuitable for consumption. The deficit of water has led to alternative methods to obtain said water, such as groundwater. Groundwater resources in a lot of Latin America unfortunately are highly mineralized or contain anthropogenic contaminants which limits the use of water for drinking purposes. The shortage of funding has caused Latin America to be in a water crisis and the lack of control of clean water has rendered many parts of Latin America politically …show more content…
This southeast region is experiencing a two-year drought due to an abnormal atmospheric condition, which has led to 85 million people to a water crisis. Normally, it is the rainy season in the summer in Brazil by a weather pattern know as the South Atlantic Convergence Zone but for the last two years there has been persistent high pressure. This high pressure has blocked the Convergence Zone and restricted the southward flow of water vapor from the Amazon. Not only is there shortages of water but that insufficiency also risks social disorder. On August 2014, without warning, the water supplies in the city’s homes were shut off. Residents were outraged by the outage and social convulsion arose as neighbors fought their way in the dozens to public taps. This outage went on until about September leading to informal economic activity due to “water traffickers”, which sold water to homebound neighbors. The São Paulo government has approached this by financially rewarding those who conserve and, starting January 2015, fining those who