We construct the Jordan decomposition of a bounded functional on C(K) directly, without assuming a measure representation. For , define
This is finite, nonnegative, and positively homogeneous, since is allowed and . If , separately chosen approximate maximizers add to an admissible function for , giving . For the converse, any splits into the continuous functions
with and . Hence and is additive on the positive cone.
Extend it to a linear functional by for . This is well defined: two decompositions satisfy , and additivity gives the same difference. Every continuous real function has such a decomposition, for example into its pointwise positive and negative parts. The extension is positive. Define ; for , the choice shows , so is also positive. Part (a) makes both positive linear functionals continuous.
Their operator norms satisfy
The last equality uses symmetry of the real unit ball. Therefore