The Unaccountability Machine

Outline

The Unaccountability Machine (2024) explains why large organisations so often make decisions that nobody seems responsible for. Dan Davies revives the ideas of the cybernetician Stafford Beer to show how systems create accountability sinks, where rules and processes absorb blame. The book examines how this shaped modern economies and institutions, and what better-designed systems could look like.

• Large organisations often make decisions that nobody seems to be responsible for.
• Systems can create accountability sinks, where rules and processes absorb the blame for a decision.
• Dan Davies revives the ideas of the cybernetician Stafford Beer to explain how organisations fail to answer for their choices.
• The book traces how accountability sinks shaped modern economies and institutions.
• It also asks what better-designed systems could look like.

Dan Davies is a British writer and former economist and financial analyst who worked at the Bank of England and in investment banking. He writes about finance, economics, and how organisations work. His books include Lying for Money, a study of financial fraud, and The Unaccountability Machine.