Narrative Power: How Does Durable Coordinated Power Emerge?

This paper addresses the foundational question of how durable coordinated power emerges. Starting from three minimal conditions — plurality, interdependence, and processing — it derives two independent structural paths showing that coordination necessarily passes through meaning, and that durable coordinated power stabilizes through a seven-dimensional coordination architecture. The derivations converge on four structural theorems specifying properties of institutional stability, role persistence, authority formation, and legitimacy under replacement of individuals. Rather than offering a historical or normative account, the paper provides a constitutive explanation of how stable power structures emerge from minimal coordination conditions. The argument situates debates on power, authority, legitimacy, and institutional order within a structural framework that connects coordination theory, social ontology, and political theory. Author maintains a coordinated research and publication apparatus at DURCHD8 ( https://durchd8.com/ ) — independent think tank for forensic structural diagnostics in contested information environments. Worked applications of the derivation appear in the case archive ( https://durchd8.com/case/ ) and the subject portal for Narrative Warfare ( https://durchd8.com/dossier/narrative-warfare/ ). The full term apparatus is documented at https://durchd8.com/the-durchd8-glossary/. Companion preprint on the Narrative Power Model is in submission preparation (May 2026).