Political Resonance: Allocation, Coordination, and Stability in Complex Societies

This article develops a theory of coordination, stability, and conflict in complex societies through the concept of political resonance. It argues that political coordination depends less on legitimacy or consensus than on the extent to which political decisions remain intelligible and recognizable within evolving systems of expectations. Resonance emerges when political decisions can be integrated into the expectations through which actors interpret their situation and when they provide a framework within which experiences can be socially recognized. Dissonance emerges when this relationship breaks down, weakening coordination and intensifying conflict. From this perspective, power is reinterpreted not only as the capacity to impose decisions or secure compliance, but as the ability to produce and sustain resonance across heterogeneous social contexts. Contemporary political instability can therefore be understood less as a crisis of legitimacy than as a failure of political decisions to remain meaningful within changing horizons of expectation. By developing a non-normative and systemic account of political dynamics, the article contributes to debates in political theory and social theory on power, legitimacy, conflict, and the conditions of political order.