Political scientists for more than two decades have worried about declining levels of citizens support for their regimes (legitimacy), but have failed to empirically link this decline to the survival or breakdown of democracy. This apparent paradox is the legitimacy puzzle, which this book addresses by examining political legitimacy s structure, sources, and effects. With exhaustive empirical analysis of high-quality survey data from eight Latin American nations, it confirms that legitimacy exists as multiple, distinct dimensions. It finds that one s position in society, education, knowledge,...