Members respond to decline by leaving, speaking up, or staying loyal.
Hirschman's 1970 framework. The sharp part is the interaction: easy exit undermines voice, so competition can weaken the feedback that would have improved the institution.
In practice
- A council that makes complaints easy and switching impossible hears everything; one where residents can move hears nothing and declines quietly.
- A software team with an easy migration path loses the customers who would have told them what was wrong.