Trust in institutions is declining across most democracies, which makes this an unusually live subject for a research organisation rather than a purely theoretical one. Legitimacy is the question of why people accept authority, sitting underneath every argument about institutions, elections, courts and international bodies. It’s central in political theory and increasingly practical. The word has commercial uses too. Authentication, verification, credentialing and anti-counterfeiting all trade in legitimacy in the literal sense, which is a real technology market.

Producing a coherent record of a multi-day meeting is a real professional skill that organisations hire for. The documentation reading here is practical rather than abstract. A rapporteur is the person appointed to investigate a subject and report back, a formal role in the UN system, the European Parliament, and countless committees and inquiries. That institutional specificity is the value. The word is precise and instantly recognisable to anyone working in policy, governance or international organisations, while staying unfamiliar enough elsewhere to remain distinctive.