the Daily Whale - 21 April 1991

Newton’s Laws of Bureaucracy

1. A bureaucracy at rest remains at rest. A bureaucracy implementing uniform policies continues to implement more complex policies, until the policies become meaningless. The bureaucracy is then said to be at rest.

2. One bureaucracy may apply a force to a second bureaucracy. The affected bureaucracy continues as before, though it may expand its jurisdiction.

3. For every individual action there is an equal and opposite bureaucratic inaction.