On unintended consequences

[nancylebov]

the most powerful “perverse consequences” tend to come not from some single, unified umbrella political drive, but through the small initiatives of powerful official actors who are given tremendous autonomy to act independently, to enact some body of social theory or some aesthetic principle held by a visionary.

This sounds plausible to me, but any opinions about how solid it is?

Comments

[madfilkentist]

Unintended consequences arise from centralization of authority in general, because the decision-makers don't and can't have the knowledge to anticipate all the results of their actions. Sometimes the rule-makers try to get around this by giving flexibility to the rule-implementers, and this results in "powerful official actors who are given tremendous autonomy." But both rigid rules and flexible delegation result in unintended consequences.