2024-05-06 20:40:05 +00:00
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---
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2024-10-29 18:27:12 +00:00
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date: 2022-05-07
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2024-05-06 20:40:05 +00:00
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id: ed6d0fa4-364d-4408-b139-b81542ff5f15
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title: Pournelle's Iron Law of Bureaucracy
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---
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Pournelle's Iron Law of Bureaucracy[^1] states that in any bureaucratic
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organization there will be two kinds of people":
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> First, there will be those who are devoted to the goals of the
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> organization. Examples are dedicated classroom teachers in an
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> educational bureaucracy, many of the engineers and launch technicians
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> and scientists at NASA, even some agricultural scientists and advisors
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> in the former Soviet Union collective farming administration.
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>
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> Secondly, there will be those dedicated to the organization itself.
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> Examples are many of the administrators in the education system, many
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> professors of education, many teachers union officials, much of the
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> NASA headquarters staff, etc. –[Jerry
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> Pournelle](20220507131154-jerry_pournelle)
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The Iron Law states that in every case the second group will gain and
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keep control of the organization. It will write the rules, and control
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promotions within the organization.
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# Footnotes
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[^1]: <https://www.jerrypournelle.com/reports/jerryp/iron.html>
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