Regime Viability Under Cognitive Load: A Structural Framework

This paper presents a deliberately limited structural framework for analyzing regime via-bility under cognitive load. The framework formalizes five variables: cognitive capacity (C),cognitive load (L), mediation quality (M), coordination requirement (K), and permissible inter-vention space (Ω). Regime viability is treated as a feasibility condition: the effective cognitiveburden imposed on participants must remain within tolerable bounds given available capacityand required coordination, subject to regime-defined constraints on permissible interventions.The framework is not a predictive model, does not prescribe interventions, does not rank regimetypes, and does not assume informed or rational citizens. Its contribution is diagnostic: it makesconstraints explicit, identifies failure modes and degenerate equilibria, and clarifies why regimesmay appear stable while accumulating latent instability.