Rob (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} robyrt) wrote,@ 2008-05-12 10:12:00 |
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Science Marches On
Science News has a study saying that a country's efficiency is inversely proportional to its number of cabinet members. In a classic example of heavy induction, they started with this tiny, Economist-style "that's pretty neat" graph, then found some way to represent it in more repeatable terms (graph theory, with each minister as one node).
Intuitively, this makes sense: any small group can reach consensus pretty quickly, and any group of 20+ needs to have its own leadership. An odd number also really helps. (One manager usually has 10 or less underlings, the Supreme Court has 9 members, etc.)
However, it's not exactly an open-and-shut case, as the researchers mention: Canada, Australia and New Zealand all have big cabinets and high efficiency. I suspect this is more because they have fewer powerful ethnic groups, reducing the need to have shared oversight of crucial government functions. (Iraq, for instance, is bloated with 3 positions for every 1 real position, so that everyone can be appeased.)
Science News has a study saying that a country's efficiency is inversely proportional to its number of cabinet members. In a classic example of heavy induction, they started with this tiny, Economist-style "that's pretty neat" graph, then found some way to represent it in more repeatable terms (graph theory, with each minister as one node).
Intuitively, this makes sense: any small group can reach consensus pretty quickly, and any group of 20+ needs to have its own leadership. An odd number also really helps. (One manager usually has 10 or less underlings, the Supreme Court has 9 members, etc.)
However, it's not exactly an open-and-shut case, as the researchers mention: Canada, Australia and New Zealand all have big cabinets and high efficiency. I suspect this is more because they have fewer powerful ethnic groups, reducing the need to have shared oversight of crucial government functions. (Iraq, for instance, is bloated with 3 positions for every 1 real position, so that everyone can be appeased.)
