By Cliff Potts, CSO, and Editor-in-Chief of WPS News

Baybay City, Leyte, Philippines — September 15, 2026

At some point, every system runs into the same wall:

Do people believe it works?

Not in theory. Not on paper. In practice.

Because once that question starts getting asked out loud, the system is already under stress.

Legitimacy is not automatic

Legitimacy is not built into a constitution. It is not guaranteed by law. It is produced over time through performance and perception.

People accept outcomes they do not like if they believe the process was fair.

They reject outcomes they might otherwise accept if they believe the process was not.

That is the difference between compliance and resistance.

Trust is a working condition

Institutions rely on trust to function efficiently.

  • courts rely on people accepting rulings
  • law enforcement relies on people complying with authority
  • elections rely on people accepting results

When trust is present, systems run with less friction.

When trust declines, everything becomes harder:

  • enforcement becomes more contested
  • rulings become more disputed
  • outcomes become more fragile

The system still operates, but it operates under strain.

Sources of erosion

Trust does not disappear all at once. It erodes.

That erosion can come from multiple directions:

  • inconsistent outcomes
  • visible errors
  • conflicting narratives
  • perceived bias

Once doubt is introduced, it tends to spread.

Not evenly. Not predictably. But persistently.

Executive influence on legitimacy

The executive branch has a unique role in shaping legitimacy.

Public statements about:

  • elections
  • courts
  • law enforcement
  • government agencies

can influence how those institutions are perceived.

This does not mean the executive controls legitimacy. It does mean the executive can affect it.

When institutions are repeatedly described as unreliable, biased, or ineffective, public confidence can decline.

That has downstream effects.

Feedback loops

Legitimacy operates in loops.

  • reduced trust leads to increased contestation
  • increased contestation leads to visible conflict
  • visible conflict reinforces reduced trust

This loop can be difficult to reverse once it begins.

Because each stage feeds the next.

Fragmented legitimacy

In a fragmented information environment, legitimacy is not uniform.

Different groups may:

  • trust different institutions
  • accept different outcomes
  • rely on different sources

This creates a condition where the system does not have a single legitimacy baseline.

Instead, it has multiple, competing baselines.

That complicates governance.

Tradeoffs in challenging institutions

Criticism of institutions can be necessary. Systems need correction.

But sustained, broad criticism has tradeoffs:

  • it can expose real weaknesses
  • it can also weaken overall confidence

The balance between critique and stability is not fixed. It shifts over time.

When legitimacy becomes the issue

A system can absorb policy disagreement.

It can absorb political conflict.

It struggles to absorb widespread doubt about its own legitimacy.

Because at that point, the argument is no longer about what the system does.

It is about whether the system should be trusted to do anything at all.

What this means

This is where everything in this series starts to converge.

  • executive action
  • institutional response
  • information flow
  • enforcement
  • accountability

All of it feeds into legitimacy.

Under the Trump presidency, where communication is direct, conflict is sustained, and institutions are frequently challenged, legitimacy becomes a central variable.

Not a side issue. A central one.

The system can continue to function with reduced trust.

But it does not function the same way.

And once legitimacy becomes contested, restoring it is significantly harder than maintaining it.

This series will now move into the phase where we test what happens when those constraints are pushed further.

If this work helps you understand what’s happening, help me keep it going: https://www.patreon.com/cw/WPSNews

For more from Cliff Potts, see https://cliffpotts.org

If you are interested in resisting authoritarian rule and understanding the systems behind it, see https://endfascism.xyz

References

Levi, M., & Stoker, L. (2000). Political trust and trustworthiness. Annual Review of Political Science, 3, 475–507.

Tyler, T. R. (2006). Why people obey the law. Princeton University Press.

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