Parkinson's law  ## Metadata - Author: [[wikipedia.org]] - Full Title: Parkinson's law - Category: #articles - Document Note: --- tags: - #management - #productivity - #bureaucracy - #organizational-behavior - #public-administration Author: C. Northcote Parkinson (Wikipedia summary article) Source: Wikipedia Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_law date created: 2025-08-22 00:00 --- # Title: Parkinson’s Law — Why Work And Bureaucracy Expand Regardless of Need ## Table of Contents: - [📜 Overview](#-overview) - [🕰️ History](#-history) - [🧮 Formula](#-formula) - [🌱 Generalization](#-generalization) - [🧩 Corollaries](#-corollaries) - [👥 Related Efficiency (Committee Size)](#-related-efficiency-committee-size) - [🧷 Other Topics and Terms](#-other-topics-and-terms) - [🔗 See Also](#-see-also) - [📝 Summary](#-summary) - [📖 Main Content](#-main-content) - [🗒️ Notes](#-notes) - [📖 References](#-references) - [🗣️ Paraphrase](#-paraphrase) - [📰 Newsletter](#-newsletter) - [✅ Action Items (Prompt tailored to your role)](#-action-items-prompt-tailored-to-your-role) - [🧪 Hypotheses](#-hypotheses) - [📊 Methodology](#-methodology) - [❓ Questions](#-questions) - [🔮 Future Research](#-future-research) - [💡 Implications](#-implications) - [🧠 Learning Styles Assessment](#-learning-styles-assessment) - [📊 Accessibility Assessment](#-accessibility-assessment) - [🌍 DEIB Assessment](#-deib-assessment) - [✅ Logical validity](#-logical-validity) - [🔍 DARVO Analysis](#-darvo-analysis) - [🔍 SEO Evaluation](#-seo-evaluation) - [🎯 Conclusion](#-conclusion) ### References: Include a list of sources consulted and cited in the article. - The Economist original essay by C. Northcote Parkinson (1955) - Parkinson’s Law: The Pursuit of Progress (1958) - Historical examples from British Admiralty and Colonial Office - Empirical work on committee inefficiency thresholds (e.g., Physica A, 2009) ## 📝 Summary: Parkinson’s law observes that bureaucracies expand over time regardless of workload, driven by two forces: officials prefer subordinates over rivals, and officials create work for one another. Originating from C. Northcote Parkinson’s 1955 Economist essay and later expanded into a book, the law has been generalized beyond government to time management and resource demand. The article also introduces a formula for staffing growth, notable corollaries (“work expands to fill the time available”), and a related idea: decision-making bodies become inefficient beyond roughly 20–22 members. It connects to concepts like induced demand, planning fallacy, and Jevons paradox. ## 📖 Main Content: - Core idea: Bureaucracy grows irrespective of the work to be done, typically 5–7% annually, due to status incentives and internal micropolitics. - Historical grounding: Parkinson used the British Admiralty and Colonial Office to show headcount growth during periods of declining ships/colonies. - Formalization: A playful yet pointed formula estimates annual hiring based on promotability dynamics and memo-writing overhead relative to completed files. - Time management corollaries: “Work expands to fill the time available” frames student syndrome, planning fallacy, and scope creep. - General economic framing: When the price of a resource is effectively zero, demand expands to meet supply—akin to induced demand. - Committee efficiency: Empirical work supports inefficiency beyond roughly 20–22 members; optimal size remains debated (often argued near 5–8 for agility). - Broader cultural reach: Translated widely; cited by Gorbachev to explain universal bureaucratic creep. ### 🗒️ Notes - Definition and drivers - Bureaucracy expands independent of workload. - Two drivers: - Preference for subordinates over rivals. - Officials generate work for each other via memos and processes. - Historical examples - British Colonial Office staff growth despite shrinking empire. - Admiralty staff growth amid fleet declines. - Growth rate - Claimed 5–7% annual increase irrespective of workload variation. - Formula (staff expansion “x”) - x = (2k^m + P) / n - k: employees seeking promotion via hiring subordinates. - m: hours spent on internal memoranda (micropolitics). - P: age-at-hire minus age-at-retirement. - n: number of files actually completed. - Generalization - Demand expands to match supply when the price is zero. - Related to induced demand and the law of demand. - Corollaries and related sayings - “Work expands to fill the time available.” - Stock–Sanford: “If you wait until the last minute, it only takes a minute to do.” - Horstman: “Work contracts to fit the time we give it.” - Asimov: longer days can double the distance you fall behind. - Computing: “Data expands to fill available storage.” - Committee inefficiency (“coefficient of inefficiency”) - Historical drift from small, powerful councils to large, ineffective bodies. - Evidence suggests sharp inefficiency beyond 19.9–22.4 members. - Optimal size uncertain; small groups favor decisiveness but risk narrow input. - Other concepts - “Injelitance”: rise of leaders with high incompetence and jealousy (I^3J^5). - Practical essays on selection, retirement, arrival timing at social events. - Cultural/Political notes - Popular in Soviet bloc; Gorbachev: “Parkinson’s law works everywhere.” ## 📖 References: - Original essay: “Parkinson’s Law,” The Economist (1955) - Book: Parkinson’s Law: The Pursuit of Progress (1958) - Physica A paper on cabinet size and performance (2009) - Related: planning fallacy, induced demand, Jevons paradox ## 🗣️ Paraphrase: 1) Original idea: Bureaucratic headcount grows independent of actual work, because managers prefer to add subordinates (not rivals), and internal processes generate more tasks for colleagues. Even as an organization’s external responsibilities shrink, internal staff may still rise 5–7% per year. Paraphrase: Organizations often swell in size regardless of how much they actually have to do. Leaders tend to bolster their influence by recruiting staff beneath them rather than cultivating peers, and their internal communications create additional tasks. The result is steady headcount inflation—commonly five to seven percent annually—even when the workload plateaus or falls. 2) Committee size inefficiency: Decision-making bodies become markedly inefficient once they exceed roughly 20–22 members, though the perfect size remains unclear. Small groups can act decisively, whereas large groups fracture into sub-discussions that dilute leadership. Paraphrase: When committees get larger than about twenty people, their effectiveness drops sharply. While tiny groups can move quickly, bigger assemblies splinter into side conversations, making coordination difficult. The ideal size is debated, but evidence suggests there is a tipping point beyond which performance degrades. ## 📰 Newsletter: This week in Web Dev & WordPress: ship smarter, not bigger. Inspired by Parkinson’s law (“work expands to fill the time available”), we’re tightening our loops and trimming bloat—whether it’s your build pipeline or your backlog. - Learning track: Master the fundamentals that actually move the needle—HTML semantics, modern CSS (container queries!), and practical JS patterns for interactivity without over-engineering. Pair with Git/GitHub workflows that keep PRs small and reviews humane. - Recent updates: WordPress performance team continues to push Core improvements; keep an eye on image lazy-loading defaults and script strategy refinements. Gutenberg gains design tooling that reduces theme CSS debt. - Community highlights: New contributor sessions this month—perfect for your first Core patch or Docs contribution. If you’re curious about sustained funding for maintainers, check out Open Collective case studies and the WPFunders discussion on transparent sponsorships. - Fresh plugins: Minimalist blocks tuned for CLS stability; a lightweight image CDN helper; and a GitHub Actions template for automated plugin asset updates. - Pro tip: Beat Parkinson’s law in your dev life—timebox refactors, cap PR scope to one concern, and define “done” as user-visible value, not line-count. Helpful resources: - WordPress Core Performance updates - “Induced demand” in software: why adding capacity can in - Summary: Parkinson's Law is a theory proposed by Cyril Northcote Parkinson in 1955 which observes that public administration, bureaucracy, and officialdom expands, no matter the amount of work to be done. Parkinson attributes this phenomenon to the desire of officials to have subordinates (and not rivals) and to the fact that officials create work for one another. Parkinson argued that the number of employees in a bureaucracy rises by 5-7% per year, regardless of the amount of work that must be done. Parkinson's Law went on to be published in many languages and has been generalized further to describe a broader demand upon a resource which always expands to match its supply. - URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_law Not to be confused with [Parkinson's law of triviality](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_law_of_triviality). **Parkinson's law** is the observation that [public administration](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_administration), [bureaucracy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bureaucracy) and [officialdom](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Officialdom) expands, regardless of the amount of work to be done. This was attributed mainly to two factors: that officials want [subordinates](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hierarchy), not rivals, and that officials make work for each other. It was first published in 1955 by the naval historian [C. Northcote Parkinson](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._Northcote_Parkinson) as an essay in *[The Economist](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Economist)*.[[1]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_law#cite_note-original-1) He gave, as examples, the growth in the size of the British [Admiralty](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Admiralty_(United_Kingdom)) and [Colonial Office](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonial_Office) even though the numbers of their ships and colonies were declining. The growth was presented mathematically with the formula x=(2km+P)/n in which k was the number of officials wanting subordinates, m was the hours they spent writing [minutes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minutes) to each other and so on. The essay was then published with other similar essays as a successful book: *Parkinson's Law: The Pursuit of Progress.* It was translated into many languages as the law seemed to apply in other countries too. #### History Articulated by [Cyril Northcote Parkinson](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._Northcote_Parkinson) as part of the first sentence of an essay published in *[The Economist](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Economist)* in 1955 and since republished online,[[1]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_law#cite_note-original-1)[[2]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_law#cite_note-2) it was reprinted with other essays in the book *Parkinson's Law: The Pursuit of Progress* (London, John Murray, 1958). He derived the dictum from his extensive experience in the [British Civil Service](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Civil_Service). A current form of the law is not the one to which Parkinson referred by that name in the article, but rather a mathematical equation describing the rate at which [bureaucracies](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bureaucracy) expand over time. Much of the essay is dedicated to a summary of purportedly scientific observations supporting the law, such as the increase in the number of employees at the [Colonial Office](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonial_Office) while the [British Empire](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Empire) declined (he showed that it had its greatest number of staff when it was folded into the [Foreign Office](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Office) due to a lack of colonies to administer). He explained this growth using two forces: (1) "An official wants to multiply subordinates, not rivals", and (2) "Officials make work for each other." He noted that the number employed in a [bureaucracy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bureaucracy) rose by 5–7% per year "irrespective of any variation in the amount of work (if any) to be done". *Parkinson's Law* was translated into many languages. It was highly popular in the Soviet Union and its sphere of influence.[[3]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_law#cite_note-3) In 1986, [Alessandro Natta](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alessandro_Natta) complained about the swelling bureaucracy in Italy. [Mikhail Gorbachev](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail_Gorbachev) responded that "Parkinson's law works everywhere."[[4]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_law#cite_note-4) #### Corollaries The first-referenced meaning of the law - "Work complicates to fill the available time" - has dominated, and sprouted several [corollaries](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corollary), the best known being the Stock–Sanford corollary to Parkinson's law: > If you wait until the last minute, it only takes a minute to do.[[5]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_law#cite_note-5) > > Other corollaries include Horstman's corollary to Parkinson's law, coined by Mark Horstman of website manager-tools.com:[[6]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_law#cite_note-6) > Work contracts to fit in the time we give it.[[7]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_law#cite_note-7) > > the Asimov corollary to Parkinson's law: > In ten hours a day you have time to fall twice as far behind your commitments as in five hours a day.[[8]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_law#cite_note-8) > > as well as corollaries relating to [computers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer), such as: > Data expands to fill the space available for storage.[[9]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_law#cite_note-9) > > #### Generalization The law can be generalized further as: > The demand upon a resource tends to expand to match the supply of the resource (If the price is zero). > > An extension is often added: > The reverse is not true. > > This generalization has come to resemble what some economists regard as the [law of demand](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_demand) – namely, the lower the price of a service or commodity, the greater the quantity demanded. This is also referred to as [induced demand](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Induced_demand). ##### Formula Observing that the promotion of employees necessitated the hiring of subordinates, and that time used answering minutes requires more work; Parkinson states: "In any public administrative department not actually at war the staff increase may be expected to follow this formula" (for a given year) [[1]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_law#cite_note-original-1) {\displaystyle x={\frac {2k^{m}+P}{n}}}* *x* – number of new employees to be hired annually * *k* – number of employees who want to be promoted by hiring new employees * *m* – number of working hours per person for the preparation of internal memoranda (micropolitics) * *P* – difference: age at hiring − age at retirement * *n* – number of administrative files actually completed #### Related efficiency Parkinson also proposed a rule about the efficiency of administrative councils. He defined a "coefficient of inefficiency" with the number of members as the main determining variable. This is a semi-humorous attempt to define the size at which a committee or other decision-making body becomes completely inefficient. In *Parkinson's Law: The Pursuit of Progress*, London: John Murray, 1958 a chapter is devoted to the basic question of what he called *comitology*: how committees, government cabinets, and other such bodies are created and eventually grow irrelevant (or are initially designed as such). (The word [comitology](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comitology) has recently been independently invented by the European Union for a different non-humorous meaning.)[[10]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_law#cite_note-OED-10)[[11]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_law#cite_note-misuse-11) Empirical evidence is drawn from historical and contemporary government cabinets. Most often, the minimal size of a state's most powerful and prestigious body is five members. From English history, Parkinson notes a number of bodies that lost power as they grew: * The first cabinet was the Council of the Crown, now the [House of Lords](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Lords), which grew from an unknown number to 29, to 50 before 1600, by which time it had lost much of its power. * A new body was appointed in 1257, the "Lords of the King's Council", numbering fewer than 10. The body grew, and ceased to meet when it had 172 members. * The third incarnation was the [Privy Council](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privy_Council_of_the_United_Kingdom), initially also numbering fewer than 10 members, rising to 47 in 1679. * In 1715, the Privy Council lost power to the Cabinet Council with eight members, rising to 20 by 1725. * Around 1740, the Cabinet Council was superseded by an inner group, called the [Cabinet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabinet_of_the_United_Kingdom), initially with five members. At the time of Parkinson's study (the 1950s), the Cabinet was still the official governing body. Parkinson observed that, from 1939 on, there was an effort to save the Cabinet as an institution. The membership had been fluctuating from a high of 23 members in 1939, down to 18 in 1954. A detailed mathematical expression is proposed by Parkinson for the coefficient of inefficiency, featuring many possible influences. In 2008, an attempt was made to empirically verify the proposed model.[[12]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_law#cite_note-12) Parkinson's conjecture that membership exceeding a number "between 19.9 and 22.4" makes a committee manifestly inefficient seems well justified by the evidence proposed. Less certain is the optimal number of members, which must lie between three (a logical minimum) and 20. (Within a group of 20, [individual discussions](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_faction) may occur, [diluting the power of the leader](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Splinter_group).) That it may be eight seems arguable but is not supported by observation: no contemporary government in Parkinson's data set had eight members, and only the unfortunate king [Charles I of England](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_I_of_England) had a Committee of State of that size. #### Other topics Other chapters relate to what time to arrive at a cocktail party, how best to select applicants, what is the best age to retire, and "injelitance": the disastrous rise to authority of individuals with an unusually high combination of incompetence and jealousy expressed in the chemical formula I3J5. He also wrote the book *Mrs. Parkinson's Law: and Other Studies in Domestic Science*. #### See also * [Dilbert principle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dilbert_principle) * [Gustafson's law](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustafson%27s_law) * [Hofstadter's law](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hofstadter%27s_law) * [Lewis–Mogridge Position](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis%E2%80%93Mogridge_Position) * [Induced demand](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Induced_demand) * [Iron triangle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_triangle_(US_politics)) * [Jevons paradox](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jevons_paradox) * [List of eponymous laws](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_eponymous_laws) * [Parkinson's law of triviality](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_triviality) * [Peter principle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_principle) * [Planning fallacy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planning_fallacy) * [Reference class forecasting](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reference_class_forecasting) * [SnackWell effect](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SnackWell_effect) * [Student syndrome](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Student_syndrome) * [Time management](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_management) * [Time to completion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_to_completion) * [Zawinski's Law](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zawinski%27s_Law) #### References 1. ^ [Jump up to: ***a***](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_law#cite_ref-original_1-0) [***b***](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_law#cite_ref-original_1-1) [***c***](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_law#cite_ref-original_1-2) Parkinson, Cyril Northcote (19 November 1955). ["Parkinson's Law"](http://www.economist.com/businessfinance/management/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14116121). *The Economist*. London. 2. **[^](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_law#cite_ref-2)** Fowler, Elizabeth M (5 May 1957). ["It's a 'Law' now: Payrolls grow"](http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F70616FF3D55137A93C7A9178ED85F438585F9). *The New York Times*. 3. **[^](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_law#cite_ref-3)** Brown, Archie (2009). [*The Rise and Fall of Communism*](https://archive.org/details/risefallofcommun00brow). New York: Ecco. p. [589](https://archive.org/details/risefallofcommun00brow/page/589). [ISBN](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)) [9780061138799](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/9780061138799). 4. **[^](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_law#cite_ref-4)** [O'Sullivan, John](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_O%27Sullivan_(columnist)) (June 2008). "Margaret Thatcher: A Legacy of Freedom". *Imprimis*. [Hillsdale College](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillsdale_College). **37** (6): 6. 5. **[^](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_law#cite_ref-5)** Pannett, Alan Shalini Sequeira; Dines, Andrew; Day, Andrew (2013). [*Key Skills for Professionals: How to Succeed in Professional Services*](https://books.google.com/books?id=QhBMlKelYloC&pg=PA65). [Kogan Page](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kogan_Page). p. 65. [ISBN](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)) [9780749468774](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/9780749468774). 6. **[^](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_law#cite_ref-6)** Alexander Clark, Bailey Sousa (12 March 2018). *How to Be a Happy Academic: A Guide to Being Effective in Research, Writing*. SAGE. [ISBN](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)) [9781526449047](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/9781526449047).`{{[cite book](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Cite_book)}}`: CS1 maint: uses authors parameter ([link](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:CS1_maint:_uses_authors_parameter)) 7. **[^](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_law#cite_ref-7)** Barber, Cam. ["How to write a speech in 15 minutes"](http://vividmethod.com/how-to-write-a-speech-in-15-minutes/). *Vivid method*. Retrieved 11 November 2014. 8. **[^](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_law#cite_ref-8)** Isaac Asimov, in [Nightfall and Other Stories](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nightfall_and_Other_Stories), introductory material to "[The Machine That Won the War](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Machine_That_Won_the_War_(short_story))" 9. **[^](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_law#cite_ref-9)** Jansen, Peter (2008). *IT-Service-Management Volgens ITIL*. Derde Editie. [Pearson Education](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pearson_Education). p. 179. [ISBN](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-90-430-1323-9](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-90-430-1323-9). 10. **[^](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_law#cite_ref-OED_10-0)** ["comitology"](https://oed.com/search?searchType=dictionary&q=comitology). *[Oxford English Dictionary](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford_English_Dictionary)* (Online ed.). [Oxford University Press](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford_University_Press). (Subscription or [participating institution membership](https://www.oed.com/public/login/loggingin#withyourlibrary) required.) 11. **[^](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_law#cite_ref-misuse_11-0)** [A Brief List of Misused English Terms in EU Publications](https://web.archive.org/web/20130810041828/http://ec.europa.eu/translation/english/guidelines/documents/misused_english_terminology_eu_publications_en.pdf) (PDF) (Report). 18 June 2013. Archived from [the original](http://ec.europa.eu/translation/english/guidelines/documents/misused_english_terminology_eu_publications_en.pdf) (PDF) on 10 August 2013. 12. **[^](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_law#cite_ref-12)** Klimek, Peter; Hanel, Rudolf; [Thurner, Stefan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stefan_Thurner) (14 April 2008), "To how many politicians should government be left?", *Physica A*, **388** (18): 3939–3947, [arXiv](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ArXiv_(identifier)):[0804.2202](https://arxiv.org/abs/0804.2202), [Bibcode](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bibcode_(identifier)):[2009PhyA..388.3939K](https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2009PhyA..388.3939K), [doi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doi_(identifier)):[10.1016/j.physa.2009.06.012](https://doi.org/10.1016%2Fj.physa.2009.06.012), [S2CID](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S2CID_(identifier)) [12097887](https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:12097887), It is often argued – as now e.g. in the discussion of the future size of the European Commission – that decision making bodies of a size beyond 20 become strongly inefficient. We report empirical evidence that the performance of national governments declines with increasing membership and undergoes a qualitative change in behavior at a particular group size. We use recent UNDP, World Bank and CIA data on overall government efficacy, i.e. stability, the quality of policy formulation as well as human development indices of individual countries and relate it to the country's cabinet size. We are able to understand our findings through a simple physical model of opinion dynamics in groups.. #### Further reading * Parkinson, Cyril Northcote (1958). *Parkinson's Law, or The Pursuit of Progress*. London: John Murray. * Grunwald, Beverly (17 November 1968). "Mrs. Parkinson's Law". *The New York Times Book Review*. p. 5. * [Planet Money](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planet_Money) [Episode 877: "The Laws Of The Office"](https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2018/11/19/669395064/episode-877-the-laws-of-the-office), 21 November 2018, NPR #### External links * Parkinson, Cyril Northcote (19 November 1955), ["Parkinson's Law"](http://www.economist.com/businessfinance/management/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14116121), *The Economist*. * ——— (November 1955), ["Parkinson's Law"](http://www.berglas.org/Articles/parkinsons_law.pdf) (PDF), *The Economist*, Berglas. * [C. Northcote Parkinson, Parkinson's Law - extract](http://www.panarchy.org/parkinson/parkinsonlaw.html) (1958), Parkinson's law, wikipedia.org, 01h3wfkaegz0kfnf7hvwxjvf90.