Self-Reproducing Generative Power: Dependency, Counter-Power, and Closure

Power can persist through law, habit, coordination, external scarcity, or organizational inertia. A narrower mechanism appears when present exercise changes a condition of future power and that change returns as greater later power. This paper proposes the term self-reproducing generative power for that mediated return. The proposal is actor-, target-, domain-, action-, comparison-, and horizon-specific. Three candidate paths receive separate treatment. A material path runs through practical exit and dependence. A counter-power path runs through contraction of viable contestation. An institutional-legitimation path runs through justificatory assertion, audience uptake, institutional conversion, and later power. Under a local differentiable model, each path contributes a chain-rule product to the one-step power multiplier. The direct persistence term remains algebraically separate. The result measures local mediated return; multidimensional stability depends on the full Jacobian and nonlinear regime. A set-valued construction defines counter-power through efficacious actions that preserve a declared viability condition. A finite-trace countermodel then establishes that an observed trajectory of power and dependence underdetermines an endogenous return loop across unrestricted model classes. The paper therefore requires edge-specific causal evidence, plausible rivals, longitudinal-confounding analysis, and strategic-response analysis. Self-reproduction, restricted closure, domination, injustice, generativity exploitation, responsibility, and legal wrong remain separate registers. The current contribution is a revisable mechanism grammar, a conditional local derivation, an identification warning, and a comparative research programme. Empirical prevalence, historical application, normative evaluation, and legal classification remain open.