ABSTRACT
At issue is the foundational concept of legitimacy. Max Weber famously divided legitimacy into three ideal types, namely traditional, charismatic, and rational. Two case studies are presented to test the relation of harm to legitimacy in the American political environment. In the first case, a local sewerage authority is creating a nuisance deeply affecting the health and comfort of the residents of a small neighborhood. In the second case, the issue is one of speech in a classroom and in what ways legitimacy depends on context. Knowledge and harm come to the fore in the educational context when parents challenge the right of the public school system to teach their children subjects the parents abhor. Creationism versus evolutionism has been the focus of such issues in the United States, but comparable concerns arise in the opposition to wearing masks during the Covid-19 pandemic, the teaching of "critical race theory," or the presentation of issues touching on religious beliefs.
