Sociologists have found that two of our most “commonsense” adages about bureaucracy are mostly false: the “Peter Principle,” which holds that “people rise in an organization to their level of...

Sociologists have found that two of our most “commonsense” adages about bureaucracy are mostly false: the “Peter Principle,” which holds that “people rise in an organization to their level of incompetence” (Peter and Hull, 1969) and “Parkinson’s Law,” which holds that “work expands to fill the time available for its completion.” Each may contain a grain of truth, but if they were right, most bureaucratic organizations would fail. Yet bureaucracies are generally successful. Evans and Rauch (1999) studied governments of 35 developing countries and found prosperity developed in those with central bureaucracies, so long as they hired on the basis of merit and offered workers rewarding work.