ABSTRACT
The "legitimacy" of the Supreme Court and of its decisions, as invoked in the debate about judicial review, is a wayward child of Realist paternity. The symbolic quality of the Constitution and the Supreme Court has long ago become a commonplace in the literature of law and political science. The Supreme Court, Robert A. Dahl goes on to say, "is an essential part of the political leadership and possesses some bases of power of its own, the most important of which is the unique legitimacy attributed to its interpretations of the Constitution." Inherent in the clashes arising from a scheme of limited government is a threat to the legitimacy of governmental actions, for some segment of the population invariably perceives them as unauthorized by the basic arrangements of the polity. Realigning elections, finally, occur when voters revise their party loyalties in such a way as to create a new majority party and to give it control of the government.
