Etiam pulvinar consectetur dolor sed malesuada. Ut convallis
euismod dolor nec pretium. Nunc ut tristique massa.
Nam sodales mi vitae dolor ullamcorper et vulputate enim accumsan.
Morbi orci magna, tincidunt vitae molestie nec, molestie at mi. Nulla nulla lorem,
suscipit in posuere in, interdum non magna.
Pournelle’s Iron Law of Bureaucracy states that in any bureaucratic organization there will be two kinds of people: those who work to further the actual goals of the organization, and those who work for the organization itself. Examples in education would be teachers who work and sacrifice to teach children, vs. union representative who work to protect any teacher including the most incompetent. The Iron Law states that in all cases, the second type of person will always gain control of the organization, and will always write the rules under which the organization functions.
Perhaps the most thorough description of the “anatomy” of bureaucracies in modern literature is to be found in Gordon Tullock’s The Politics of Bureaucracy (1965), which is still available from Liberty Fund as Bureaucracy vol 6 of the selected works of Gordon Tullock (which also includes his related Economic Hierarchies, Organiztion and The Structure of Production).
This reference is not meant suggest superiority over other studies of equal significance but of a differing perpspective.
You’ve got three options – be part of the apparatus, a torpid beneficiary of its works, or be in a prison/gulag/camp. And that’s as it stands now. We have the future to look forward to when such subtleties will melt away into a “comforting” singularity.
All content on this website (including text, photographs, audio files, and any other original works), unless otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons License. Powered by WordPress & Atahualpa
I first ran across this sentiment as Pournelle’s Iron Law of Bureaucracy:
Perhaps the most thorough description of the “anatomy” of bureaucracies in modern literature is to be found in Gordon Tullock’s The Politics of Bureaucracy (1965), which is still available from Liberty Fund as Bureaucracy vol 6 of the selected works of Gordon Tullock (which also includes his related Economic Hierarchies, Organiztion and The Structure of Production).
This reference is not meant suggest superiority over other studies of equal significance but of a differing perpspective.
Harmonic convergence – I watched Brazil earlier tonight.
What Eric said.
Professor Parkinson said much the same thing fifty years ago.
Plus ca change…
You’ve got three options – be part of the apparatus, a torpid beneficiary of its works, or be in a prison/gulag/camp. And that’s as it stands now. We have the future to look forward to when such subtleties will melt away into a “comforting” singularity.