Pournelle's Iron Law of Bureaucracy

Jerry Pournelle observed that in any bureaucracy, two kinds of people rise: those dedicated to the organization’s goals, and those dedicated to the organization itself. The second type increasingly dominates. They’re better at internal politics, coalition building, and navigating procedures. The first type does the actual work but loses the power struggles. Eventually the organization exists primarily to serve its staff.

This is more specific than the shirky principle. Shirky says institutions preserve their problem. Pournelle says institutions serve their bureaucrats. Both describe drift from mission, but through different mechanisms: Shirky through institutional survival instinct, Pournelle through internal selection pressure favoring political skill over mission commitment.

The mechanism is evolutionary. Bureaucratic survival skills and mission skills are different. People who optimize for internal advancement — pleasing bosses, building alliances, following procedures — outcompete those who optimize for outcomes. Each hiring and promotion decision tilts the organization’s composition. Given enough iterations, the organization becomes dominated by people whose primary loyalty is to the organization.

The result is an institution that looks functional but whose actual priorities are staff comfort, budget growth, and procedural correctness. The stated mission becomes a justification for these real priorities rather than a goal being pursued. Dysfunction isn’t failure; it’s the organization working as its internal selection pressures designed it.

The iron law is hard to reverse. Reformers who focus on mission threaten those who focus on organization. The politically skilled bureaucrats are better at neutralizing threats. Even when reform leaders are installed, they depend on the existing staff for implementation — and the existing staff has been selected for bureaucratic skill, not mission commitment.

The implication: organizational health requires constant pressure against the iron law. Favor doers over politicians, outsiders over insiders, results over process. This feels disruptive because it is. The alternative is slow capture by those who serve themselves while claiming to serve the mission.