The temporally-structured political code’s formal nature makes it compatible with opportunism

Evidence

It is no coincidence that bourgeois society uses a scheme to codify politics in which time functions so as to generate and direct structure. It could also be shown how and why this political code, with its temporal structure, pushes back the neutral schematization of law. But these questions cannot be pursued here, interesting as they are. For our purposes we must simply remember that this particular political code is compatible with opportunism, thanks to its formal nature and thanks to its temporality, and thereby saves society from being tied to a fixed media-hierarchy. — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 695

Categorization

• XREF: The political code’s ‘formal nature and temporality’ enabling opportunism parallels Lord Darlington’s moral opportunism within institutional power. — connects to: Formal logic and law serve the status quo once stripped of political content — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 225