When Does Reform Actually Happen?

Why do excellent reform proposals sit on shelves while systems continue to decay?This episode of Mechanism Realism examines the conditions under which structural reform actually happens. The core claim is simple: power structures do not reform themselves against their own interest. If a reform threatens incumbent power, it will be blocked, diluted, absorbed, or buried.Historically, reform moves through five vectors: blitzkrieg or shock therapy, grand bargains, constitutional lock-in, external constraint, and technocratic interregnum. New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland, Estonia, and Italy each show a different way structural capture can be bypassed — and each path has its own legitimacy cost and failure mode.The practical lesson is not “write better reports.” Captured systems already have excellent reports. The question is whether the proposed reform changes the rules of the game, or merely asks captured actors to act against their own interest.Advice without authority is sophisticated noise. Reform requires architecture.https://kunnas.com/articles/when-does-reform-happen