Legitimacy, Moral Injury, and Institutional Constraint: A Response to Becker-Inflected Moral–Ecological Critiques of Constitutional Civic Realism

Key Points

• The paper responds to critiques of Constitutional Civic Realism and defends a structural view of legitimacy.
• Analysis of Becker-inflected critiques of Constitutional Civic Realism
• Evaluation of legitimacy theory in relation to moral injury
• Discussion of institutional constraints and their implications for legitimacy
• Moral injury serves as a strong diagnostic tool for understanding domination.
• Legitimacy is framed as a structural condition rather than a strict moral benchmark.
• A comparative and falsifiable account of institutional constraint is essential for legitimacy theory.