Power as a medium emerges only when contingent selection can be negated

Evidence

Such a focus, a passage through increased contingency, is also necessary for the formation of the communication medium of power. Not every execution of a proposed action becomes problematical. One does not let go of something one has been given, but accepts it and holds it tight, etc. But in special cases, if the proposer, shall we say, restricts himself to proposing, and his own action restricts itself to prescribing the action of others, the actual context of circumstances can no longer perform all the transmission of selections which are required. The temptation to negation also increases with the contingency of the selection. Then transmission of selection can occur only under special presuppositions and the power-code reconstructs and institutionalizes these presuppositions. Only with the help of a symbolically generalized communication medium do they become the basis of reliable expectations. — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 606

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines power as a symbolically generalized communication medium that institutionalizes presuppositions enabling transmission of selection under contingency.
• XREF: This directly supports the reader’s thesis: system trust (Luhmann) reduces complexity through such media — parallels Giddens’s ‘faceless commitments’ replacing facework.