The standard account of ritual in social theory treats it as expressive: ritual expresses values that exist independently of it, making them visible and reinforcing them. Living Value Theory proposes a stronger claim: ritual is not merely expressive but constitutive. It does not express pre-existing values but creates them.
This is what LVT means by ritual efficacy: the capacity of ritual action to bring about real changes in the value landscape of a community. A marriage ceremony does not merely celebrate a pre-existing bond; it creates a new social fact. A funeral does not merely express grief; it transforms the value status of the deceased and the bereaved.