It is argued that the source of crescive legitimation lies in social conditions that permit noncon formities to normative expectations, so that unsanctioned violations increase and spread. This, together with the paucity of palpable reactions create the positive feedback that propels legitima tion. Crescive delegitimation, the reverse process, originates in open challenges to legitimate objects when they appear to conflict with established norms or beliefs. It is driven by a positive feedback in the opposite direction. This theoretical argument was transformed into a System Dynamics simulation model and tested with time series data on unmarried cohabitation (U.S.A., 1960-1994), reform marriages in Israel (1990-1996), and homosexuality (U.S.A., 1973-1996). The plotted output matched the data trends in each set, and the model reproduced over 85% of the variance of the data.
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