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Warum es einer von Idealtheorien unabhängigen politischen Theorie der Legitimität bedarf

I argue that neither Rawls’s ideal-theoretical nor his non-ideal-theoretical account of legitimacy provides answers to the questions of political legitimacy as they arise under existing circumstances. From the point of view of ideal theory, no existing constitutional order is fully reasonable. Therefore, claims to legitimacy cannot be based on the fact that exercises of power are in accordance with these constitutions. From the point of view of nonideal theory, only those exercises of political power are legitimate that aim at establishing a reasonable constitutional order, but this holds true only for very few, if any, exercises of political power.