The Unaccountability Machine: Why Big Systems Make Terrible Decisions

The Unaccountability Machine by Dan Davies is a Financial Times and Schroder's Business Book of the Year 2024, New Statesman Book of the Year 2024, and Economist Book of the Year 2024. It examines why markets, institutions, and governments generate outcomes that everyone claims not to want, and casts new light on Stafford Beer's management cybernetics.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 304 pages
Publication date: 13 March 2025
Publisher: Profile Books Ltd

LONGLISTED FOR THE FINANCIAL TIMES AND SCHRODERS BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR 2024A NEW STATESMAN BOOK OF THE YEAR 2024 A great book ... a wonderful way of talking about our current world Rory Stewart Mischievous and fiercely intelligent Ed Smith,New Statesman One of the most insightful books I've read in a long time Sam Freedman The kind of book from which you look up to find the world suddenly more comprehensible Guardian One of the most useful books of 2024 EconomistWhen we avoid taking a decision, what happens to it? In The Unaccountability Machine, Dan Davies examines why markets, institutions, and even governments systematically generate outcomes that everyone involved claims not to want. He casts new light on the writing of Stafford Beer, a legendary economist who argued in the 1950s that we should regard organizations as artificial intelligences, capable of taking decisions that are distinct from the intentions of their members. Management cybernetics was Beer's science of applying self-regulation in organizational settings, but it was largely ignored - with the result being the political and economic crises that we see today. With his signature blend of cynicism and journalistic rigour, Davies looks at what's gone wrong, and what might have been, had the world listened to Stafford Beer when it had the chance.

Weight: 250g
Dimension: 128 x 198 x 22 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781788169554
Edition number: Main