Definition
Dependence runs both ways. A population that has come to rely on an institution's system has generated duties the institution owes it: notice when the dependency deepens, preservation of exit and alternatives, and continuity obligations at withdrawal. Treating a population's reliance as licence to direct it is a conversion — a fact about dependence turned into an unauthorized permission — and reciprocity is the refusal of that conversion.
It matters because the dependency ledger as usually written records what the institution needs in order to withdraw, and stops there. Reciprocity completes the picture: the crumple zone is not only absorbing cost, it is holding reliance the institution benefits from, and reliance held is a claim, not a resource.
Scale: Systemic · Phases: Deployment, Audit · Measurability: Qualitative · Maturity: Core concept
Adjacent terms
References
- Dependence runs both ways · Theory
- Laws · Doctrine