How can you tell which governments are legitimate? It's pretty easy. Legitimate governments:
(a) derive their just powers from the consent of the governed...
(b) secure life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for their citizens...
======= A]In a formal sense or in a real historical sense? Does the decline in voting signal a withdrawal of consent because of a substantive failure of members of society to agree on the meanings of B; hence the proliferation of kakistocracies and plutocracies around the world?
Ian