Complex bureaucracies evolve mechanisms that isolate rather than connect critical information

Evidence

As the 9/11 Report emphasized, successfully anticipating, discovering, and averting terrorists’ plans requires the ability to integrate ” all-source” intelligence—in other words, success hinges on the ability to “connect the dots” (p. 416). Unfortunately, complex bureaucracies often evolve a variety of mechanisms that tend to isolate the dots. — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 1986

Categorization

• XREF: Connects directly to the ‘informational commons’ framing running through this book and to Milgrom’s claim that institutions arise to solve information problems — here, institutions creating the problem. — connects to: Strong governance enables complex projects while weak governance causes their failure. — Jessica Carrick-Hagenbarth, Institutional Bricolage and Commoning…, 119; Bureaucratic functionality makes bias officially unacknowledgeable and contested — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of…, 847; Environmental law thrives in democracies because they enable information disclosure — Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law, 1104