Legitimacy and force co-vary through symbolic mediation, not inverse proportion

Evidence

Neither legitimacy nor physical force arises without the mediation of symbolic processes. The concepts characterize neither a simple opposition nor the dual poles of a single dimension, such that one might say: the more physical force, the less legitimacy, and vice versa. Rather, symbolic interdependencies exist in the sense that regulations of the relationship at the symbiotic level – i.e. at the organic side of social co-existence – have to reckon with the requirements of the relevant communication medium. The interplay of both is necessary for the processing of contingencies, and the preconditions for this combined action can vary as they evolve. Above all they depend on the differentiation of a specifically political power mechanism and on its universal accessibility throughout society. — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 718

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines ‘symbiotic level’ as the organic side of social co-existence, a key Luhmann term.
• XREF: The rejection of inverse proportionality maps onto Giddens: trust in expert systems and personal facework are likewise intervolved rather than substitutes. — connects to: Institutional credibility depends on not openly repudiating citizens’ counterfactual idealizations — Jürgen Habermas, A New Structural Transformation of the…, 13; Symbolic and physical violence reinforce each other as sovereign marking — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized:…, 1044; EJ activism shifts from facility opposition to contesting decision-making legitimacy