ABSTRACT
There is a crisis of legitimacy in the country. Headlines scream, "The sitting, Supreme Court, justices face an once-in-a-lifetime crisis of legitimacy that could determine the future of the US"; "Ignoring the crisis of legitimacy is not an option," writes an analyst. At the state level, the relationships between societies and their governments in every region are likely to face persistent strains and tensions because of a growing mismatch between what publics need and expect and what governments can and will deliver. The report goes on to indicate that without "fairness" and "inclusivity," governments will fail to be accorded legitimacy in the eyes of their citizenry. When legitimacy is at issue, a great deal turns of who gets to articulate its basis, its standards, and its meaning. When a transregional sewer operator, tellingly called an "Authority", was set up to rationalize local differences, it could claim to be the very embodiment of Weberian bureaucratic legitimacy.
