Delegatio Ex Machina: Institutions Without Agency

This article examines the disappearance of agency in institutional governance when predictive systems become the locus of delegation. Delegatio Ex Machina proposes that institutional authority is no longer anchored in decision-makers but in compiled rules that execute without reference to a subject. Central banks, international agencies, and automated audit systems illustrate how syntactic delegation replaces political acts with repetitive formal structures. By tracing this displacement, the paper defines a framework for understanding authority without agency and its risks for accountability in predictive societies.

DOI

• Primary archive: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.16949155  
• Secondary archive: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.29987578
• SSRN: Pending assignment (ETA: Q3 2025)