Yeah, sure, a government is legitimate if it was elected according to the present system of "first past the post"...but it isn't legitimate for that government to pretend that it has the support of a majority of the people when it plainly does not...and to behave as if it had a mandate based upon the will of a majority of the people.

However, politicians are anything but scrupulous. ;-D They play the game to win. Once they have power, they are certainly not inclined to share it.

Again, you could say the same about Alpha dogs, couldn't you?

I'd like to think humanity could do better than that, but I'm not holding my breath waiting for it to happen.