 A related foundational question asks who merits a public justification in the first place (this question relates to the question of the scope of public justification, but is logically prior to it). Quong (2011, 137–160) applies public justification to an idealized constituency of reasonable people. Gaus (2011, 232–268) directs public justification to actual persons; their justifying reasons are those that survive moderate idealization. Quong calls his view the “internal conception” of political liberalism. He contrasts it with the “external conception.” The external conception directs public justification to natural persons as they are. But few public reason liberals adopt the external view. The Gausian model appeals to a limited idealization, not none. The internal conception has been subject to several criticisms. (Gaus 2012, Billingham 2017a, Vallier 2017). But theorists also criticize the Gausian approach (Enoch 2013, Quong 2014).