The Doctrine of Consensual Sovereignty: Quantifying Legitimacy in Adversarial Environments

Abstract

This paper develops a unified analytical framework for measuring political legitimacy across heterogeneous governance domains. Building on insights from constitutional political economy, social choice theory, and institutional analysis, the framework establishes consent-holding as a structural necessity of collective action. Legitimacy is operationalized as stakes-weighted consent alignment α(d,t), while friction F(d,t) measures the deviation between outcomes and stakeholder preferences.

Key Contributions

• Five axioms, five theorems: Formal framework bridging normative democratic theory and empirical prediction
• Historical validation: Suffrage expansion, abolition, labor rights, and platform governance examined with quantified α/F trajectories
• Computational validation: Monte Carlo (1000 runs) with Bayesian learning agents shows stakes-weighted DoCS achieves highest alignment (α = 0.872) with lowest friction (94.9% reduction)
• Consent vs competence resolved: Domain-specific approach shows both as complementary dimensions of institutional legitimacy
• V-Dem v15 empirical data: Five countries, 1789–2024, quantifying suffrage and abolition trajectories

Scope

140-page monograph (v2.0.0), 5 Parts, 21 sections, 4 appendices. The most comprehensive paper in the portfolio. Working Paper DAI-2501.

Links

• SSRN: SSRN:5918222
• ASCRI: systems.ac/1/DAI-2501
• Research Lab: Dissensus AI