States must simplify what they govern in order to govern it, and the simplification eventually reshapes the thing to fit the categories.
Scott's 1998 Seeing Like a State. Cadastral maps, permanent surnames and scientific forestry all simplified to permit administration, and the German forests planted in monoculture rows collapsed within two generations.
In practice
- A benefits system that records "household" cannot see the family that does not fit the category, and eventually the family reorganises to fit it.
- A health service that measures activity by appointment finds clinicians producing appointments, and the category has reshaped the care.
- Standing
- The structural ancestor of Goodhart's and Campbell's laws.
- Subject
- Organizations & Bureaucracy
- Essay
- Why organisations learn, harden and decline