Legitimacy Assessment
Is This a Rupture or a Transition?
Answer these ten questions to assess whether your institution is experiencing a difficult transition (recoverable through reform) or a legitimacy rupture (requiring re-founding).
Context: This diagnostic is based on the LGIT (Legitimacy-Grievance-Institutional Trajectory) framework. A rupture occurs when institutional claims no longer correspond to operational reality and reaffirmation becomes destabilising rather than restorative.
Do participants privately acknowledge that stated rules no longer match how outcomes are actually determined?
Is there a growing gap between official communications and what insiders know to be true?
When leaders reaffirm institutional values or commitments, does this increase rather than decrease skepticism?
Do calls to 'recommit to shared principles' feel increasingly hollow or performative?
Are problems routinely framed as temporary deviations rather than structural failures?
Do those who name systemic issues face reputational or professional costs?
Is grievance accumulating faster than institutional channels can process it?
Are participants withdrawing into parallel coordination rather than engaging through official channels?
Do participants continue performing institutional rituals they privately believe are meaningless?
Is compliance maintained primarily to avoid trouble rather than because rules are seen as legitimate?
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