The Iron Law of Aristocracy

Pournelle’s Iron Law of Bureaucracy states that in any bureaucratic organization there will be two kinds of people”:

First, there will be those who are devoted to the goals of the organization… …Secondly, there will be those dedicated to the organization itself… …The Iron Law states that in every case the second group will gain and keep control of the organization. It will write the rules, and control promotions within the organization.

Jerry Pournelle, The Iron Law of Bureaucracy

Pournelle’s Iron Law of Bureaucracy has been on my mind this morning. I have been thinking that the iron law does a neat job of explaining the rise of aristocracies and other forms of class or caste systems that entrench a particular group of people in power. It explains why supposedly progress politicians never seem to do as much as they say. The politicians are the type two bureaucrats, and the status quo is the bureaucracy they are defending. This applies to feudal lords or Brahman priests. It applies to Egyptian Pharoahs and Russian oligarchs.

Your petty middle manager is the same person as the queen of England in the basic mechanics of their worldview.