Autopoiesis and Steering: How Politics Profit from the Normative Surplus of Capital

I shall begin with a question that is trivial as it is fundamental: why, in order to steer society, does politics take the detour through law? Why does it not rule directly into society at its own boundary points, say by authoritatively ordering money payments, or by using economic interest groups as ‘juridifying’ instruments of political control? Instead, politics takes the laborious path of norming its policies through legislation, adjudication and administration, only in the end to find how great expectations in Washington are dashed in Oakland.