# Regulatory Capture

> the watchdog slowly learning to speak with the voice of what it watches

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

## Concrete anchor

Regulatory Capture 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

Information dependence, revolving personnel, concentrated access, incentives, and lobbying can align regulation with regulated interests.

## Who gains and who loses power

The mechanism can increase the capacity of actors able to use Regulatory Capture, 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.** the watchdog slowly learning to speak with the voice of what it watches

## Gift

Specialized knowledge can improve workable rules.

## Wound / Shadow

Public authority becomes a private shield.

## Conditions

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

## Strategic meaning

Use Regulatory Capture 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 Regulatory Capture. Read for the capacity seeking expression, the cost displaced from view, and the relationship that changes if the frame moves.

**Question:** Whose expertise sets the boundary of the possible?

## Game function

**event.** Reveal one hidden dependency connected to Regulatory Capture; another player names a countermove. Initiative 4.

## Relationships

- **translates into — Revolving Door:** Revolving Door translates into Regulatory Capture by changing authority, participation, resources, information, legitimacy, timing, or the cost of cooperation. _(synthesis; supported)_
- **enables — State Capture:** Regulatory Capture enables State Capture by changing authority, participation, resources, information, legitimacy, timing, or the cost of cooperation. _(synthesis; supported)_
- **institutionalizes — Custom:** Regulatory Capture institutionalizes Custom by changing authority, participation, resources, information, legitimacy, timing, or the cost of cooperation. _(interpretive; tentative)_
- **depends on — Agenda Setting:** Agenda Setting depends on Regulatory Capture by changing authority, participation, resources, information, legitimacy, timing, or the cost of cooperation. _(interpretive; tentative)_

## Countermaps and polarity prompts

- Read Regulatory Capture from the viewpoint of the actor who bears its cost.
- Reverse cause and symptom: what if Regulatory Capture 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 Regulatory Capture: 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`.
