Autopoietic Power

摘要

This article presents an analysis of power that is very different from classical political science frameworks. It integrates Luhmann's theory of self-referential social systems into his theory of power and thereby exposes a theory that can match the major French analyses and genealogies of power. Furthermore, the theory enlarges the scope of power from a material and a social dimension to that of mastering temporalities. The article suggests that power (pouvoir, Macht) emerged as a concept used in the organization of time as presence/absence and thereby power synchronized and coordinated representation and delegation. To catch this problem of historical sociology, I use and reconstruct Niklas Luhmann's enormous theory of self-referential systems that is strong in temporal analysis, yet weak as a theory of self-referential power. The materials are drawn from historical state-building. Over a thousand years power developed from an invisible hybrid form into a certain form of visibility and later differentiated only for more recently again to turn into a form of hybridity.