Many sincere patriots wished that the party were eventually going to split and evolve into smaller parties and gradually succeed in accommodating other parties of the opposition. As that did not happen, one can argue, the party failed to embrace the conventional 'party-wisdom' in the process. Therefore, one can safely assume that the PFDJ party, even though unmanageably huge and excessively powerful, cannot be considered as a people's party, for its real ties with the people are quite limited. Simply stated, it did not come into existence through a fairly and convincingly staged forces of the 'internal' reasoning. In fact, due to its lack of such appropriate ties with the populace, questions regarding its legitimacy can justifiably be raised.
Some scholars define 'legitimacy' as the belief that a particular political order is just and valid.
Others define it as a term in which we discuss the authority of a state organ, its right to citizens' allegiance. As mentioned above, if we the citizens believe that the party is legitimate then our conscience will bind us to obey it. Perhaps it would help us understand the concept of legitimacy better if we attribute it to the PFDJ party in the light of a number of other surrounding questions. Usually, the way we conceptualise legitimacy varies according to what is significant to us. However we conceive it, legitimacy in the case of PFDJ, at least to this author, is a problem regarding misappropriation of power or, a problem of unlawful consolidation of power.