Contrast: High Reliability Organisations
There are, however, some organisations that do not seem to generate major
disasters even though according to Perrow’s formula they should. These are
labelled High Reliability Organization (HRO). An HRO is an organization that
consistently avoids catastrophes in an environment where normal accidents
would be expected due to risk factors or complexity. It is possible that they
avoid this becaue they have factored into their operating sysem some measure
of flexibility and initative.
Theories of Legal Compliance
How small, of all that human hearts endure
That part which laws or kings can cause or cure.
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Legislative Marksmanship
Although the popular mind tends to see law as the solvent for all problems,
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the reality is that it is not always effective. A law does not always achieve its
desired effect. Therefore, enacting Statute X to cause Effect X is rational only
if there is sufficient reason to believe that Statute X will cause Effect X. Hence
an important part of reasoning in the policy process is trying to determine as
accurately as possible the effect that any contemplated law will have. This
involves asking and answering a fundamental question, which can be framed in
various ways. What sort of things can laws cause and what sort of things can
they not cause?
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Once a law is made, how effective will it be? How can a law
best achieve its goal?
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How well a law achieves its desired effect is reflected in the concept of
legislative marksmanship
–
this refers to how accurately the legislation hits its
intended target. Does it miss items that it wished to regulate so that it is
affected by over inclusiveness?
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Does it regulate items that it wished to miss
so that it is affected by under inclusiveness?
Legislative Impact Analysis
You change your laws so fast and without inquiring after results past or
present that it is all experiment, seesaw, doctrinaire; a shuttlecock between
___________________
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Oliver Goldsmith The Traveller I: 427
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This view that any law or decree will always change behaviour is called
“decretinism” by Renner to encapsulate this idolatry of law - see Renner (1949) p
260.
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This, it is worth noting to give a wider perspective on the question, is also a
fundamental question about the proper role and limits of government.
472
See Baldwin (1990), Ingram (1980).
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Weida (2005) argues, for example, that United States statutes imposing
trade sanctions often have an impact on others beside the target states.
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