At the macro level, it is recognized that the legitimacy of institutions such as political regimes varies with their ability to make policies that are in line with the citizens’ preferences. Also, legitimacy is believed to increase when the citizens are allowed to influence the outcome of the decisions themselves. These two sources of legitimacy are known as output and input legitimacy, respectively. What we know less about are the micro foundations of input and output legitimacy. In a 2x2 factorial survey experimental design, we test the hypotheses that both ability to influence a decision and outcome favorability has a positive impact on the legitimacy of the decision. Furthermore, we hypothesize an interaction effect of the two dimensions. That is, individuals care firstly about the outcome of the decision and secondly about whether or not they have had the opportunity to influence the decision.
