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This is going to be an online meetup using Zoom. If you've never used Zoom before, don't worry — it's easy to use and free to join.

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CAN WE ESCAPE THE IRON LAWS OF GOV'T & CORPORATE BUREAUCRACIES?

INTRODUCTION:

In this discussion was inspired by my realization several months back that many complaints about Big Government from the political right and complains about Big Business from the political left share some commonalities despite the differences in their proposed policy remedies - i.e. they're complaining about the dysfunctions of a certain type of bureaucracy while often being blind to the dysfunctions of a different type of bureaucracy. I thought it would be useful to discuss the failings of both government & corporate bureaucracies in general terms, and then try to ascertain whether these problems are inevitable or avoidable/fixable - and if so, how that could be done.

In the 1st section, we'll discuss the origins of the modern academic study of organizational bureaucracies in the early 20th century with the work of the German sociologist Max Weber, particularly in his book Economy and Society: An Outline of Interpretive Sociology (1921). Weber's ideal type of bureaucracy was based on "rational-legal authority" (as opposed to "traditional" or "charismatic" authority) and had 6 characteristics: rationality, hierarchy, expertise, rules-based decision making, formalization, and specialization. We'll contrast this ideal Weberian bureaucracy against the writer Franz Kafka's portraits of unaccountable bureaucracies-gone-mad in his stories like "The Trial", "The Castle", "Poseidon", "The Great Wall of China" and "In the Penal Colony". Kafka used his experience as a lawyer working various drudgingly boring legal & insurance jobs for inspiration. However, it's worth noting that Weber also saw the downsides of bureaucratic overspecialization & depersonalization and warned of what he called an "iron cage" of rationalization, remarking that "rational calculation... reduces every worker to a cog in this bureaucratic machine and, seeing himself in this light, he will merely ask how to transform himself... to a bigger cog."

In the 2nd section, we'll discuss various amateur "folk theories" of bureaucratic mismanagement & promotion of incompetence that developed in the post-WW2 era and into the early 21st century like the "Peter Principle" from educator Laurence Peter's 1969 book of the same name, "Putt's Law" from Archibald Putt's 1981 book Putt's Law and the Successful Technocrat, the "Dilbert Principle" from cartoonist Scott Adam's 1996 book of the the same name, sci-fi author Jerry Pournelle's "Iron Law of Bureaucracy" from his Chaos Manner blog (circa 2006), political blogger Jon Schwarz's "Iron Law of Institutions" from his Tiny Revolution blog (2007), and the "Gervais Principle" from Ribbonfarm blogger Venkatesh Rao's 2009 book of the same name. These folk theories are similar despite having different formulations:
* Peter Principle: "Every employee tends to rise to their level of incompetence."
* Putt's Law: "Technology is dominated by two types of people, those who understand what they do not manage and those who manage what they do not understand."
* Dilbert Principle: "Companies tend to promote incompetent employees to management to minimize their ability to harm productivity."
* Iron Law of Bureaucracy: "In any bureaucracy, the people devoted to the benefit of the bureaucracy itself always get in control and those dedicated to the goals that the bureaucracy is supposed to accomplish have less and less influence, and sometimes are eliminated entirely."
* Iron Law of Institutions: "The people who control institutions care first and foremost about their power within the institution rather than the power of the institution itself. Thus, they would rather the institution 'fail' while they remain in power within the institution than for the institution to 'succeed' if that requires them to lose power within the institution."
* Gervais Principle: "Sociopaths, in their own best interests, knowingly promote over-performing ['Clueless' people] into middle-management, groom [under-performers] into Sociopaths, and leave the average bare-minimum-effort 'Losers' to fend for themselves."
We'll try to ascertain whether there folk theories of bureaucratic mismanagement are empirically valid and if so, how they might be ameliorated by better systems of promotion.

In the 3rd section, we'll discuss the economic sub-discipline of "public choice theory" and how it relates to libertarian critiques of the "Iron Triangle" between congressional committees, bureaucratic agencies, and special interest groups that's based on "concentrated benefits & diffuse costs" - i.e. those few within the Iron Triangle benefit while the taxpayers foot the bill. The most notable academic treatment of this comes from the economist William Niskanen's 1971 book, Bureaucracy and Representative Government. The self-reinforcing nature of the Iron Triangle leads to what the economist Milton Friedman called the "Tyranny of the Status Quo" that stymied his attempts to promote major cuts to the federal budget during the Reagan administration. We'll discuss how this relates to the success of Argentinian President Javier Milei's economic reforms and the failure of Elon Musk's short-lived "Department of Government Efficiency" (DOGE) under Trump 2.0.

In the 4th section, we'll look at the new center-left faction known as "abundance liberals" and how their critique of government bureaucracies doesn't lead in the same direction as libertarians. Rather, their proposed reforms involve cutting red tape and avoiding the "adversarial legalism" and "everything bagel liberalism" that bog down government bureaucracies that are trying to accomplish more of the public projects that progressives want (e.g. affordable housing, high-speed rail, wind & solar energy capacity, EV charging stations). However, as we'll see, "abundance liberalism" has raised concerns that its policies could replicate some of the negative effects of the High Modernist projects that were catalogued by Jane Jacobs' 1961 book The Death and Life of Great American Cities and Robert Caro's 1974 book The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York. When unaccountable to citizens, technocratic reforms of the past led to problems like abuse of eminent domain to clear poor neighborhoods for ill-conceived urban development projects like dense housing projects that bred more crime & poverty and highways that led to de facto racial segregation and a local tax base gutted by "white flight".

RELEVANT MATERIALS FROM PAST MEETUPS:

Back in Feb. 2021, we had a meetup entitled "The Future of Work in the Age of Automation" and in the 1st section, we discussed David Graeber's theory of "bullshit jobs" and how it ties into the idea that we're already on the edge of technological unemployment but it's being covered by a proliferation of do-nothing corporate jobs. The econ blogger Noah Smith criticized Graeber's analysis yet noted that he might be onto something, saying: "Our jobs are probably not make-work handed to us by crafty overlords. But they may be something more insidious — an elaborate kind of wealth redistribution system, masquerading as value-creating economic activity, sustained and powered by all the economy's loopholes and flaws that Econ 101 barely mentions."

In Jan. 2025, we had a meetup entitled "Trump's Economic & Social Policies" and the 3rd section addressed Trump's renewed promises to "drain the swamp" and the creation of the Elon Musk-led "Department of Government Efficiency" (DOGE) and the conflict between Trump's tax cuts and promises to reduce the federal budget deficit. This was prescient, since it was Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill" and its contribution to the budget deficit that ultimately led to Elon Musk quitting.

In May 2025, Braver Angels hosted a discussion of Michael Lewis's documentary "Who Is Government?" that attempted to debunk the stereotype of the irrelevant bureaucrat and show that much of the business of government is essential rather than wasteful & inefficient. However, critics noted that Lewis's book didn't indicate what percentage of gov't projects are essential & efficient - just that some of them were.

Back in May, we had a meetup entitled "Can 'Abundance Liberalism' Save the Dems?" and in the 2nd section we discussed several of the problems that have contributed to blue states having a high cost of living and a shortage of amenities like high-speed rail, electrical vehicle charging stations, solar panel & wind farms, etc., that the majority of their progressive-minded citizens claim to want. We also discussed some of the reforms proposed by abundance liberals, notably zoning & building code reforms, expanding eminent domain, and giving mayors & governors the ability to ignore burdensome environmental regs (like NEPA) and to override the veto powers of NIMBY-ist citizen groups.

DIRECTIONS ON HOW TO PREPARE FOR OUR DISCUSSION:

The videos & articles you see linked below are intended to give you a basic overview of some of the major theories of bureaucracy's role in the modern world and debates over whether its negative effects can be ameliorated somehow. As usual, I certainly don't expect you to read all the articles prior to attending our discussion. The easiest way to prepare for our discussion is to just watch the numbered videos linked under each section - the videos come to about 60 minutes total. The articles marked with asterisks are just there to supply additional details. You can browse and look at whichever ones you want, but don't worry - we'll cover the stuff you missed in our discussion.

In terms of the discussion format, my general idea is that we'll address the topics in the order presented here. I've listed some questions under each section to stimulate discussion. We'll do our best to address most of them, as well as whatever other questions our members raise. I figure we'll spend about 30 minutes on each section.

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I. EVALUATING MAX WEBER'S SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY OF BUREAUCRACY & FRANZ KAFKA'S PORTRAITS OF BUREAUCRATIC ALIENATION FROM INSIDE WEBER'S "IRON CAGE":

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1a) Alex Lyons, "Max Weber Bureaucracy" (video - 9:52 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zp554tcdWO8

1b) Aristocratic, "The Bureaucracy of Max Weber & Franz Kafka" (video - 5:16 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yasxa1GerVI

II. EVALUATING PUTT'S LAW, THE PETER/DILBERT/GERVAIS PRINCIPLES, JERRY POURNELLE'S "IRON LAW OF BUREAUCRACY" & JON SCHWARTZ'S "IRON LAW OF INSTITUTIONS" AS FOLK THEORIES OF BUREAUCRATIC MISMANAGEMENT:

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2a) Chuck Weko, "Reassessing Pournelle's Iron Law [and the Peter Principle]: The True Nature of Bureaucratic Institutions" (video - 4:55 min.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyFjVqauDxM

2b) Venkatesh Rao, "The Gervais Principle" (video - 9:33 min.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJYa68AnECY

II. EVALUATING "PUBLIC CHOICE THEORY" & THE LIBERTARIAN CRITIQUE OF BIG GOV'T BUREAUCRACIES AMID JAVIER MILEI'S SUCCESS & DOGE'S FAILURE:

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3.) Reason TV w/ Zach Weissmueller, "Milton Friedman's warning to DOGE [about the 'Iron Triangle' and 'Tyranny of the Status Quo']" (video - 15:46 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1K_5YOcRrQ

IV. EVALUATING ABUNDANCE LIBERALISM'S CRITIQUE OF GOV'T BUREAUCRACY & THE CASE FOR "STATE CAPACITY" INSTEAD OF SMALL GOV'T:

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4.) Lex Friedman w/ Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson, "How to fight bureaucracy: DOGE vs left-wing alternatives" (video - 14:45 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yv8epDN641E

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