Abstract: A counterinsurgency (COIN) strategy can only be effective when it builds and promotes democratic legitimacy for the state. It is imperative that in developing a COIN strategy, there must first be an understanding of the role of the population and its perceptions of the political legitimacy of its government. There are many different theories on the origination of a state’s legitimacy – whether it stems from policies of good governance and inclusion of the population in the political process, or from the state’s coercive control measures. Notwithstanding the notions put forward by some scholars that political legitimacy can also be derived from state coercion, this paper asserts that establishing democratic legitimacy based on good governance is a more effective and enduring strategy – particularly in the context of the insurgency problem in southern Philippines.
     In this research’s use of the term legitimacy, a distinction between the definitions of democratic legitimacy and coercive authority has to be established. Democratic legitimacy is a positive term that reflects the population’s support for the regime as a result of its equitable political policies, application of justice, and appropriate use of control measures to safeguard the population. Coercive authority is, therefore, taken to mean as not “legitimate” because of the negative definition of the term coercion, i.e., to restrain or dominate through force or the threat of force (Merriam-Webster 1987). While control is a necessary and important characteristic of any state, the democratically legitimate state maintains legitimacy with the population through the discriminate use of control measures to maintain justice and order. The coercive state, on the other hand, uses an excessive amount of control most often directed against the population. A dictatorial state may effectively control its population