Power cannot self-realize but depends on societal-structural conditions for legitimacy

Evidence

Power alone is in no way a sufficient condition for its self-realization (i.e. as if it would be up to its force to force itself). The power of power cannot be attributed once more to power. Rather it needs fundamental analysis from the point of view of evolution theory and systems theory, if one wishes to explain on what societal-structural conditions the development and institutionalization of more abstract, more effective media-codes depend. — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 743

Categorization

Category: Causal Relationships

• XREF: This is the precise mechanism behind Darlington’s ethical failure — the institution’s power lacked the societal-structural grounding to be legitimate, so Stevens’s faceless commitment had nothing moral to attach to.
• DEEPTHINKING: The claim that ‘power’s power cannot be attributed to power’ is a genuinely surprising inversion — the force that enforces obedience is itself dependent on non-power structures it cannot command.

Related

• The core problem is power that resists politicization (similarity 0.83)
• The Right’s rise depends structurally on the Left’s failure in power. (similarity 0.82)
• Power must be theorized indirectly through society as its condition of possibility (similarity 0.82)
• Power can be increased only when its own overthrow is institutionalized (similarity 0.82)
• Power-legitimation must come from within democracy itself once unifying worldviews fade (similarity 0.82)
• Law creates legitimacy structurally by formatting power-holders into chains of mutual recourse (similarity 0.81)
• Structural social problems arise from non-politicized power, not overthrow of rulers (similarity 0.80)
• Routine life runs on institutionalized legitimate power, not on brutality (similarity 0.79)
• Once power and law separate, morality loses structural grip and becomes merely subjective. (similarity 0.79)
• Legitimacy and physical force are symbolically interlinked, not opposites (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Society operates as a complex formation structured in dominance with relative institutional autonomy #corroborates (0.75)
• Full autonomy of social levels cannot capture a social formation’s complex unity #corroborates (0.65) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 623
• Much societal power remains beyond the political system’s reach #expands (0.60) — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 767
• Narrow concepts of legal validity fail to prevent official abuse of power #expands (0.55) — , Hart HLA - The Concept of Law, 502
• Competence, not power, determines status in functioning societies. #contradicts (0.50) — Jordan B. Peterson, 12 Rules for Life An Antidote to Chaos, 910