Power flows as reduced complexity transmitted decision-to-decision via its code

Evidence

Only on the basis of relatively complex assumptions about a power-code does power begin to ‘flow’, i.e. to take the form of a process which transmits reduced complexity from one decision to another. The liquidity of power is the effect of its being a suitable code – just as with money. The impression of ‘flow’ arises because events (here, actions) take place sequentially, their selectivity being related to one another by means of a code in the sense that selections presuppose or complete one another reciprocally. — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 633

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines what it means for power to ‘flow’ — the liquidity metaphor is borrowed from money and depends on a power-code.
• XREF: Directly parallels Luhmann’s money-as-code analysis; connects to Giddens’s ‘faceless commitments’ via expert systems transmitting trust without facework.