Null Subjects of Power: The Politics of Absence in Executable Language

This article introduces the concept of Null Subjects of Power, where authority operates through the absence of an explicit agent. While in linguistics the null subject is a grammatical category, in predictive societies it becomes a political one: institutions obey rules without a speaker, mandates without an issuer, and decisions without a subject. From judicial sentences and financial reports to policy drafts generated by AI, the null subject marks the disappearance of responsibility while preserving obedience. The paper argues that null subjects constitute a structural category of power, redefining sovereignty in executable language.

DOI

• • Primary archive: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17085900
  • Secondary archive: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.30085636
  • SSRN: Pending assignment (ETA: Q3 2025)