# Super PAC

> political speech separated from ordinary limits on direct campaign giving

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Stable ID | `node:kiduna:political-change:money-influence:super-pac` |
| Family | Money & Influence |
| Domain | Political Economy |
| Kind | mechanism |
| Archetypal function | The Amplifier |
| Epistemic status | synthesis; supported |

## Concrete anchor

Super PAC belongs to the **Money & Influence** family. It is treated as a specific political object, role, institution, tactic, event, ideology, or mechanism before any symbolic transfer is made.

## What it does

A Super PAC may raise unlimited funds for independent expenditures but may not contribute directly to or coordinate expenditures with federal candidates under U.S. law.

## Who gains and who loses power

The mechanism can increase the capacity of actors able to use Super PAC, while shifting cost, delay, risk, exclusion, or dependence toward actors with less authority, information, organization, money, or safe access. The distribution is conditional, not an essence of the node.

## Archetypal function

**The Amplifier.** political speech separated from ordinary limits on direct campaign giving

## Gift

Independent political association and advocacy.

## Wound / Shadow

Capital acquires amplified voice through legal structure.

## Conditions

- scale and jurisdiction are explicit
- affected people and absent stakeholders are named
- time horizon and countermoves are considered

## Strategic meaning

Use Super PAC to identify the operative target, resource, dependency, decision forum, and likely countermove. Ask what would make the mechanism stronger, weaker, more legitimate, or less necessary.

## Divinatory meaning

The Amplifier enters through Super PAC. Read for the capacity seeking expression, the cost displaced from view, and the relationship that changes if the frame moves.

**Question:** When is formal independence substantively independent?

## Game function

**resource.** Reveal one hidden dependency connected to Super PAC; another player names a countermove. Initiative 3.

## Relationships

- **enables — Political Action Committee:** Political Action Committee enables Super PAC by changing authority, participation, resources, information, legitimacy, timing, or the cost of cooperation. _(synthesis; supported)_
- **constrains — Independent Expenditure:** Super PAC constrains Independent Expenditure by changing authority, participation, resources, information, legitimacy, timing, or the cost of cooperation. _(synthesis; supported)_
- **amplifies — Noise Demonstration:** Noise Demonstration amplifies Super PAC by changing authority, participation, resources, information, legitimacy, timing, or the cost of cooperation. _(interpretive; tentative)_
- **mobilizes — Peacekeeping:** Super PAC mobilizes Peacekeeping by changing authority, participation, resources, information, legitimacy, timing, or the cost of cooperation. _(interpretive; tentative)_

## Countermaps and polarity prompts

- Read Super PAC from the viewpoint of the actor who bears its cost.
- Reverse cause and symptom: what if Super PAC is an effect of the system it appears to drive?
- Change the clock: what looks different over a day, an election cycle, a generation, and a century?
- Ask when the Gift becomes the Wound through scale, secrecy, intensity, latency, or unequal reciprocity.

## Epistemic and Sentinel note

Claim layers: synthesis, interpretive, symbolic_divinatory. Scope, jurisdiction, period, and source perspective may change the claim.
No node-specific Sentinel factors were recorded; ordinary source, audience, and context checks still apply.

## Visual direction

A text-free enamel expression of Super PAC: one dominant mechanism, one counterforce, raised warm-metal linework, midnight field, restrained civic red, teal, ivory, and amber. No party logo, national flag, sacred symbol, or recognizable person.

## Research / provenance

- [Understanding Ways to Support Federal Candidates](https://www.fec.gov/introduction-campaign-finance/understanding-ways-support-federal-candidates/) — Federal Election Commission, 2024. Federal campaign committees, independent expenditures, and contribution rules.
- [Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission](https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/558/310/) — Supreme Court of the United States, 2010. Majority, concurrence, and dissent on independent political spending.
- [Preventing Policy Capture](https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/preventing-policy-capture_9789264065239-en.html) — OECD, 2017. Mechanisms and safeguards concerning capture of public decision-making.

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Engine Output version 1.0.0; generated 2026-08-24T00:00:00Z. Sentinel annotations are stored separately in `sentinel/handoffs.json`.
