Technologies of political mediation as effective instruments of the legitimation of power

This article develops an integrative theoretical framework for understanding political mediation as a system of specialised technologies of the legitimation of power. Moving beyond traditional approaches that treat mediation primarily as a tool of conflict resolution and legitimacy as a static attribute of political order, the study conceptualises legitimation as a structured, processual, and technologically organised phenomenon. Drawing on an interdisciplinary synthesis of procedural, discursive, and institutional perspectives, the research identifies key mechanisms through which mediation transforms conflict into a source of legitimacy. These include procedural inclusion, narrative construction, the perception of justice, institutionalisation of agreements, mobilisation of consent, mutual recognition, conflict reframing, symbolic reconciliation, performative effectiveness, and normative-legal justification. The findings demonstrate that political power in complex societies is increasingly exercised through the production of consent, meaning, and recognition rather than coercion. The proposed model provides a comprehensive analytical basis for examining mediation as a central mechanism of contemporary governance.