Civilization LeapResearch for the AGI era
CL-ACA-010 · Political science and governance

When technical capabilities enter public governance, how can power move in practice through classifications, interfaces, defaults and automatic execution while legal names remain unchanged?

Disciplinary inquiry | De facto power, legitimacy, authorization and sovereignty

All disciplines Cross-disciplinary scrutiny

Full manuscripts and versions

Author-authorized full-text publication. Downloads below are separately verified files; website summaries are not manuscript translations. Publication restrictions printed in older source manuscripts are superseded by the author’s release decision of 16 October 2026; the academic text itself is unchanged.

The available Chinese independent-publication edition is V1.3. The earlier registered Canonical version V1.1 remains a historical identity, not the version of this new PDF. The professional web explanation retains its own source version.

No full English translation of the new Chinese edition has been verified. English pages remain English reading and continuation entries.

Current submission or peer-review status is not established by these publication files. Historical preparation and routing records do not establish an active review.

DISCIPLINE-INTERNAL CHAIN

First pursue the question within this discipline

Knowledge, prediction and execution capabilities → administrative functions and practical dependence → reveal de facto power → examine authorization and legitimacy separately → rights and non-domination as constraints → revocability and remedies → legal termination plus technical disabling of emergency powers

THIS PAPER CAN ESTABLISH

What this work can establish

  • Political theory, public administration, and the structure of administrative and platform-governance problems
  • Does not produce an aggregate legitimacy score
THIS PAPER CANNOT ESTABLISH

What this work cannot establish on its own

  • Does not determine AI consciousness
  • Does not adjudicate legal validity under constitutional, administrative or international law
  • Does not prove technical control on behalf of technical disciplines
BOUNDARY BREAK

Where the discipline reaches its limit

Epistemic authority and performance cannot automatically become legal validity, authorization, legitimacy or sovereignty.

NEXT DISCIPLINES

Who must take up the next responsibility for evidence

Law and ethics; AI and systems; economics; epistemology; international relations

CIVILIZATIONAL ASCENT

What the wider view reveals

Stronger governing capabilities make it more necessary to expose the source of authority, responsibility, rights of opposition and stopping mechanisms, so civilization does not silently lose the place of its subjects in the name of “high performance.”

M1—M8 · S/L/I/R

How this changes the Civilization Leap causal map

S = professional support; L = limits; I = interfaces; R = refutation or revision triggers. This is not a “list of proofs.”

M1 · I IM2 · S/L Technical capabilities enter de facto powerM3 · S/L Pre-authorization and emergency powers in irreversible, high-consequence settingsM4 · S/L Greater capability is not governing legitimacyM5 · S Authorization, legitimacy, state capacity, remedies and sovereign boundariesM6 · S/R Revocability, two-level or multilevel exit, and reviewM7 · S/L Public services must preserve real participation and human alternativesM8 · L Political order cannot define the full meaning of life
COMPETING EXPLANATIONS · REVISION

What alternative explanations remain? What findings would change this judgment?

An academic page does not endorse Civilization Leap. Professional evidence can support it, limit it, refute it or require upstream theory to be rewritten.

Alternative explanations

Technocratic governance may improve governance under strict procedures, transparency and accountability. Existing institutions may absorb shifts in de facto power rather than a new sovereignty emerging.

What to revise first if evidence does not support the account

Narrow the risk claim if transparent, reversible and accountable institutions durably prevent drift in de facto power; strengthen the relevant judgment if the opposite occurs.

What is still needed before practical application

Real governance requires statutory authorization, responsibility chains, appeals, exit, auditing and boundaries on power.

REVISION GATE

What would change this work

Changes in subjecthood evidence, facts of technical control or institutional practice may redraw membership, officeholding and authorization boundaries. A stage of development creates no exceptional source of power.

Return to the real world

Bring this discipline’s conclusions back into organizations, institutions, resources and consequences across domains.

CL-ACA-022

Civilizational direction

Discuss direction, methods and goals openly after establishing the facts.

CL-ACA-023
Historical publication and routing record (superseded publication policy)

Historical baseline only; it does not describe current submission status or restrict this authorized release.

Publication and version information · not evidence of academic correctness

A submission route exists | review status has not been established

Historically evidenced state: ROUTED / NO_ACTIVE_SUBMISSION_EVIDENCED

Portal action: NO PORTAL SUBMISSION EVIDENCED

Website publication mode: KEEP_EXISTING_PUBLIC_HISTORY + ABSTRACT_PLUS_CAUSAL_ROLE

Publication and submission boundaries: Recheck publication history, first-publication requirements, preprint rules and AI policies for each target journal. Do not newly publish submission-derived full texts.

Evidence date: 2026-08-27 governance baseline Confidence in publication-state evidence: MEDIUM

Current version: V1.1

Exact state: DIRECT CURRENT｜V1.1

View the nineteen-work Canonical Register

Translation scope

This is a translation of the existing public web page. A description of a work is not its full manuscript. Source publication and version labels describe the Chinese work; they do not claim an English full-text edition is available. Unavailable English texts and downloads are marked explicitly.