Pahud’s 1856 subsidy cut triggered the cascade that doomed the school

Evidence

The school lacked one crucial ingredient—agreement from the Indies administration that it would honor the school’s diploma and employ stu- dents who had earned its degree. Neither was forthcoming. In fact, when former Minister of Colonies Pahud replaced Duymaer van Twist as Governor-General, he confirmed just the opposite: in 1856 his first decree limited state subsidies to the school. Not surprisingly, private donors, fol- lowing Pahud’s lead, withdrew their support. Students and their parents, who had slowly come around to acknowledge the school director’s insis- tence that artisanal work could be “honorable” for Europeans, dropped out. Others, disillusioned, did not bother to enroll. — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 694

Categorization

Category: Causal Relationships

• XREF: A concrete causal account of institutional failure that parallels theories of state sabotage versus market failure.

Related

• Withholding state recognition of graduates’ credentials destroyed the school’s viability. (similarity 0.89)
• Withholding state recognition of diplomas deliberately destroyed a colonial vocational school (similarity 0.85)