The sequence follows one mechanism at three levels. At the base is the electoral field: voters do not arrive at politics as simple preferences but as complex states that must be compressed into finite ballot outputs. Above that are the parties: institutions that learn to shape the terrain, manage salience, and pull citizens toward capture basins. Around both sits the state, which becomes anxious when social media and artificial intelligence allow experience to be reframed horizontally before official mediation can stabilise it.
The Overton Field
The mathematical layer. A population occupies a political field; parties form attractor poles; election day acts as a portal that collapses high-dimensional states into admissible ballot signals.
From Representation to Capture
The institutional layer. Political parties retain the language of representation while adapting to portal politics by managing terrain, salience, identity, aversion, and turnout.
Democratic Resilience in the Digital Age
The governing layer. In the official language of misinformation and trust, the state confronts a deeper problem: horizontal reframing weakens its ability to mediate political meaning.