Legal programming replaces credibility of will with calculability of information.

Evidence

Credibility has to be secured in a different way. In its place come the legal schematization and technization of power. The conditional linking of the alternatives is, once more, conditionally programmed by law itself. Its contingency is regulated and thereby made calculable. At least the power-code takes over the function of representing that this is the case. This does not solve the problem of the credibility of will and strength; rather, it becomes obsolete, and another problem takes its place, namely the problem of information in the programmed power apparatus. The power-subject will now no longer speculate about the power-holder’s not being ready to use his supplies of power but will speculate on the power-holder’s not being informed about reasons for such action. — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 678

Categorization

• XREF: Directly feeds the Stevens/Lord Darlington reading: Stevens speculates not on Darlington’s will to act but on what information he has — institutional deference transfers trust from personal credibility to the system’s knowledge.
• DEFINE: Defines the shift from personal credibility (will/strength) to legal-technical programming as the operation of the power code.