So the problem regarding the structure of society does not in any way lie simply in occasionally overcoming the ruling upper echelons of the political system – societies have usually survived that well, because social power, as a threat to the political system, must of course change itself into political power. The problem lies elsewhere – in not being able to eliminate power from non-political interactions, in limiting the functional specification of other areas of society to purely personal love, rational production and pure exchange, and purely educational work. Hence, the self-assertion of the political system is not the only long-term political problem in relation to sources of power which exist throughout wider society. There is also the problem of keeping the functional specification of different systems as being different.

DEFINE: Distinguishes political power from broader social power, framing social power as a threat only once it converts into political power.

Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, loc. 769