Administrative Necromancy and Systemic Mortality: Extensions of the Martinez Dark Leadership Framework

This theoretical paper extends the Martinez Mythotechnic Dark Leadership framework by formalizing five concepts derived from the author’s existing research corpus: Administrative Necromancy, Automated Necro-Authority, Systemic Mortality, Circuit Breakers for Harm, and Zombie Command. The paper examines how authority can persist after the departure, death, obsolescence, or loss of legitimacy of its originating human source by becoming embedded in organizational culture, administrative rules, classification systems, software, automated policy, and technical infrastructure. Administrative Necromancy describes the institutional preservation and continued exercise of authority through surviving administrative structures. Automated Necro-Authority describes the machine-mediated execution of inherited authority without active human reauthorization. Zombie Command describes directives that continue to produce consequences after active authorship, contextual validity, or meaningful justification has disappeared. The paper introduces Systemic Mortality as the principle that consequential systems should possess mechanisms for expiration, review, revocation, decommissioning, or renewed authorization. Circuit Breakers for Harm describe mechanisms designed to interrupt automated authority when evidence indicates unacceptable harm, anomaly, rights violation, or contextual failure. Together, these concepts extend the Martinez Leadership Afterlife model from a theory of authority persistence into a theory of persistence, interruption, and termination. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.23811951