When you add too much oversight and accountability to the government, officials often just stop making any decisions at all.
This paper introduces 'responsibility saturation,' where adding more layers of transparency and multi-person approval doesn't improve decision quality—it creates 'decision inhibition.' When the personal risk of a mistake is too high due to constant oversight, administrators default to procedural delays and risk-neutral behavior to avoid taking any action at all.
Responsibility Saturation and Decision Inhibition in Advanced Governance Systems
SSRN · 6192318
Advanced governance systems are commonly designed around principles of accountability expansion, procedural oversight, and multi-layered responsibility allocation. While these mechanisms are intended to improve decision quality and institutional reliability, empirical observations across public administration and complex organizational environments indicate a paradoxical outcome: excessive responsibility distribution can inhibit decision-making altogether. This article introduces the concept of