# Dark Money

> political influence without visible provenance

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

## Concrete anchor

Dark Money 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

Funding reaches political advocacy through entities that are not required to disclose all original donors under applicable rules.

## Who gains and who loses power

The mechanism can increase the capacity of actors able to use Dark Money, 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 influence without visible provenance

## Gift

Privacy can protect association from retaliation.

## Wound / Shadow

The public cannot evaluate who is purchasing amplification or access.

## Conditions

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

## Strategic meaning

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

**Question:** What changes when the source of influence becomes visible?

## Game function

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

## Relationships

- **legitimizes — Independent Expenditure:** Independent Expenditure legitimizes Dark Money by changing authority, participation, resources, information, legitimacy, timing, or the cost of cooperation. _(synthesis; supported)_
- **mobilizes — Donor Network:** Dark Money mobilizes Donor Network by changing authority, participation, resources, information, legitimacy, timing, or the cost of cooperation. _(synthesis; supported)_
- **counteracts — Property:** Dark Money counteracts Property by changing authority, participation, resources, information, legitimacy, timing, or the cost of cooperation. _(interpretive; tentative)_
- **legitimizes — Culture War:** Culture War legitimizes Dark Money by changing authority, participation, resources, information, legitimacy, timing, or the cost of cooperation. _(interpretive; tentative)_

## Countermaps and polarity prompts

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