This paper has two main ambitions. The first (in sections I-II) is to identify a series of claims about the effects of injustice and reparation on political legitimacy. These effects are intuitively plausible and generally recognized conditions of an adequate theory of legitimacy, although they have not previously been presented or analyzed systemically. The second ambition (in sections III-V) is to illustrate certain implications of these effects for theorizing legitimacy.