Governance, Memory, and the Construction of Heroism: Narrative Legitimacy as a Structural Mechanism

This article advances a political theory and policy studies approach to narrative legitimacy, examining how institutions use narrative framing to construct and stabilize legitimacy under conditions of asymmetric power. By synthesizing institutional theory, collective memory, and the Narrative Policy Framework, it conceptualizes the construction of heroism as a mechanism through which political systems reduce interpretive uncertainty and define the boundaries of acceptable action. Using the contested historiography of John Brown as a theoretical probe, the analysis demonstrates how shifting narrative regimes reclassify actors from deviant to heroic in response to changing political imperatives. The findings suggest that the capacity to canonize historical actors operates as a form of structural power, aligning civic identity with prevailing institutional authority.