Central contribution. This paper proposes a cybernetic theory of institutional legitimacy and its structural erosion: of the conditions under which social coordination holds without enforcement, and of the mechanisms — gradual dissolution by open operators, productivist pressure, and endogenous capture of public function by private interest — by which it ruptures. The theory grounds legitimacy not in consent, deliberation, or procedural justice, but in aesthetic density (ρ): the degree to which D2 of F — gōng orientation — is carried by the habitual practical orientation of agents rather than by deliberate compliance or external coercion. Four modes are specified (ρₐ, ρd, ρₑ, false ρₐ) with ex ante observable indicators; their distinction depends on two independent variables: automaticity (A) and gōng-orientation (G). Where ρ is high, institutions are sustained because the question of non-compliance does not arise; where ρ is low, compliance requires escalating enforcement. The central question of governance, therefore, is not “what is fair? ” — not what universal justice requires, not what Plato’s philosopher-king would decree from his apprehension of the Good, not what the parties to a social contract would agree from behind a veil of ignorance, not what deliberating citizens would accept as publicly justified — but “what holds? ” The formal apparatus. The paper develops a formal apparatus derived from cybernetics (Ashby, Beer) and systems theory (Luhmann): zoning (Z) partitions social variety into functionally differentiated domains; formation (F) is a two-dimensional operator — F = (F1, F2) — whose dimensions are independent: F1 = technical capacity (D1), the operative protocol of the zone; F2 = gōng orientation (D2), the disposition to act from the function of the system rather than from private interest (sī). D1 is necessary for productive deliberation within the zone but does not constitute S; only D2 constitutes S. Together, the D2 dimension of F operating through Z constitutes the sense architecture (S = FD2∘Z) of a society — the pre-deliberative framework that makes coordination possible without permanent negotiation or enforcement. The paper distinguishes closed operators (pietas, lǐ, ordo) — which specify concrete domains, observable criteria of fulfilment, and predictable consequences — from open operators (liberty, rights, equality, dignity) — which have no intrinsic saturation point and generate permanent positive feedback loops (runaways). The structural contradiction of late liberalism is that open operators (liberty, rights, equality, dignity) systematically dissolve the formative zones (family, craft, locality, institution) that any viable governance system requires: open operators act as a cognitive solvent, re-describing every zone boundary as unjustified exclusion and generating positive-feedback loops that prevent the sedimentation on which coordination depends. The universal three-level architecture. The paper’s central formal innovation, based on S = FD2∘Z, is a universal three-level model of social order — aesthetic, normative, judicial — whose levels stand in strict inverse relation: the denser the aesthetic level, the less the normative and judicial levels need to activate. This model is scale-independent: it applies with equal structural precision to the family, the enterprise, the voluntary association, the state, and potentially to civilisational architectures of the tianxia type. It constitutes a radical break with the Western tradition of political theory, which has theorised legitimacy exclusively at the normative level — the level of contract, consent, and deliberative justification — without recognising that this level presupposes and depends upon the aesthetic level whose collapse the current liberal order systematically produces. Seven applications. The formal model is applied in seven directions, organised as two constructive, four diagnostic, one predictive, and one diagnostic-generative application: First (constructive): the Confucian tradition is shown to be the most historically sustained and structurally sophisticated instantiation of the model. The sī/gōng distinction — the colonisation of institutional function by private attachment, and its structural solution through formation — is formalised by the apparatus as the central governance problem. Xiūshēn, lǐ, and the imperial examination system are structural solutions to this problem, independently derived and operating precisely as the formal apparatus predicts. The tianxia framework (Zhao Tingyang) is examined as the model applied at civilisational scale. Second (constructive): Hegel’s distinction between Moralität and Sittlichkeit is reinterpreted as structurally isomorphic with open and closed operators — and convergent, across civilisational distance, with the Confucian sī/gōngdistinction. Both traditions understood, without the formal apparatus, that freedom requires formative closure. Third (diagnostic): the six historical forms of aesthetic density are mapped, and liberal democracy is shown to have been a genuine form of aesthetic density in its period of functional stability. Its current crisis is diagnosed as the observable exit from the aesthetic zone. Fourth (diagnostic): open operators (liberty, rights, equality, dignity) are shown to act as a cognitive solvent, dissolving compressive zones and producing dispersive aesthetic density (ρd) — agents whose pre-deliberative habit is directed toward zone dissolution. Revolutionary terror, swarm civilisation, and wokist politics are three expressions of this logic. Fifth (diagnostic): demographic collapse is reinterpreted as zone dissolution rather than insufficient natality. The productivist model depletes the extended family, clan, and locality — the zones where the pre-deliberative orientation toward reproduction was formed. The case of China (TFR ≈ 1. 1) is examined as a civilisation whose formative zones are being depleted by its own developmental success. Sixth (predictive): the Nordic, Germanic, and East Asian laboratory — the model in cinematic mode. Two pairs of cases display the predicted causal sequence in observable historical time. The East Asian pair (China, Japan) operates under a single vector: industrialism as “all are workers” — the productive equality that includes women in the labour market and dissolves the domestic zone through time-discipline alone, without requiring an explicit liberal rights ideology. The Nordic-Germanic pair operates under two simultaneous liberal vectors: the same productivist vector (more advanced than in the East), plus the migratory vector — “all are equal, including migrants” — which installs agents formed in incompatible zones without the formation process required for zone reconstitution. The Anglo-Saxon world combines both vectors at maximum intensity. The transition to the post-liberal programme is direct: reconstruction, defence, and improvement correspond to the three stages of dissolution. Seventh (diagnostic and generative): a structural theory of conflict as endogenous dissolution — the colonisation of gōng by sī beyond the threshold of tolerable compression, producing a positive-feedback loop between normative violation, economic dispersion, and judicial activation as primary regulator. The distinction between the scale of injustice (structural: the scope of the sī that produced the rupture) and the scale of indignation (phenomenological: whether the variety generated can be aggregated into coordinated response) explains why structurally identical ruptures produce insurrection in some configurations and mere complaint in others. This replaces the normative theories of exploitation, extractive institutions, and distributive justice with a purely functional account of why and when coordination systems rupture. Post-liberal programme. The paper concludes by sketching a research programme for the deliberate design of aesthetic density — performing functional evaluation, conducting formal design, and executing recursive iteration — with three applications: reconstruction (where zones have been destroyed), defence (where existing zones must be protected), and improvement (where specific dysfunctions are addressable). The terms reconstruction, defence, and improvement do not imply any preference; they are protocol modes for recovering or attaining structural stability, in the same sense that a physician speaks of reconstruction, defence, and improvement of tissue without expressing a preference for any particular patient. The framework is offered as a contribution to Chinese governance research and to the comparative study of civilisational architectures of coordination.
Alberto J. L. Carillo Canán (Thu,) studied this question.
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