Disadvantaged groups given short shrift are especially unlikely to hold their governments and leaders in high esteem. The second problem with economic performance-based legitimacy is the difficulty of maintaining high growth rates. Obviously, corruption-related costs are likely to slow growth if the ruling elites fail to control graft. But in an increasingly globally integrated economy, many factors essential to keeping growth rates high are beyond these rulers' control. Capital today is extremely mobile, and can leave a country en masse at a moment's notice.
Competition is also fierce at the low end of the market, where companies often resort to price wars.
The fall of Suharto's regime proved just how unreliable growth-based legitimacy could be. The now-disgraced Indonesian leader spent most of his 31 years in politics transforming an impoverished and unstable society into a quickly modernizing one. Under his watch, the Indonesian economy maintained one of the highest rates of growth in the world in the post-WWII period. The level of poverty was cut dramatically, and the standard of living for almost all Indonesians improved substantially. But Suharto mistook popular recognition of his achievements as unconditional endorsement for a permanent hold on power and for his family to engage, unrestrained, in corrupt activities.