State Capacitance

How the Bureaucracy Lost its Builders

Why midcentury "modernization" reorganized expertise out of existence.

Nov 25, 2025 • Kevin Hawickhorst

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September 2025

Government Administration: An Annotated Bibliography

Bureaucracy as She is Spoke

Sep 22, 2025 • Kevin Hawickhorst

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July 2025

How Process Charts Kept the Lights On

A guest writer applies 1940s management to his day job

Jul 21, 2025 • Kevin Hawickhorst and F. Ichiro Gifford

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June 2025

How the Feds Invented Lean Manufacturing

Before Toyota, there was the Social Security Administration.

Jun 23, 2025 • Kevin Hawickhorst

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May 2025

The Solicitors Against the Circuit

By Jameson Payne: How the DC Circuit built up the bureaucracy, and how the state Solicitors General pared it back.

May 23, 2025 • Kevin Hawickhorst and Jameson Payne

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New: Accounting for State Capacity

Have I painted my 6,500 word masterpiece?

May 20, 2025 • Kevin Hawickhorst

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Uncle Sam's Problem Children

The five most problematic types of government programs according to Herbert Emmerich. A new series on efficient executive branch reorganization.

May 16, 2025 • Kevin Hawickhorst

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April 2025

Truman's Bureaucrats

Paperwork reduction before the Paperwork Reduction Act.

Apr 16, 2025 • Kevin Hawickhorst

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4

March 2025

The DOGE of the 1880s

When Congress made the government efficient

Mar 3, 2025 • Kevin Hawickhorst

6

February 2025

Donations in WWII: the Treasury's Records

Uncle Sam wants you, but would settle for fifteen thousand pigeons.

Feb 10, 2025 • Kevin Hawickhorst

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USDA Reorganization: Regulatory Capture by Design

The Jekyll Island of the Department of Agriculture.

Feb 3, 2025 • Kevin Hawickhorst

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January 2025

Notes on Personnel Positions

There's more than one way to pay a bureaucrat

Jan 27, 2025 • Kevin Hawickhorst

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