Essays
Analysis of mechanisms, not motives
These essays explore how accountability weakens through pressure, hesitation, and ambiguity. They focus on structural patterns that repeat across institutions, rather than individual actors or events.
Essay: Oversight Gaps in Federal Awards and the Quiet Growth of Fraud Risk
A mechanism-first look at how incomplete adoption of oversight and fraud-prevention practices in federal awards can raise risk, even when program goals are widely supported.
Read essay →Essay: Measuring DoD Telework as a Program, Not a Preference
DoD’s revisions to civilian telework and remote work policy highlight a recurring governance problem: flexibility exists as a set of permissions until it is translated into measurable program objectives, constraints, and reviewable outcomes.
Read essay →Essay: Recycling Water at Scale as a Program: How Interior Learns, Tightens, and Repeats
Large-scale water recycling is often discussed as infrastructure, but it also functions as a repeatable program: applications, selection gates, cost-share rules, compliance review, and monitoring. GAO-26-107888 describes how Interior iterates on that process to reduce execution risk while responding to freshwater scarcity.
Read essay →Essay: Oversight Gaps and Funding Discontinuity in U.S.-Supported UN Education Programs (West Bank and Gaza)
A mechanism-focused look at how federal funding conditions, congressional reporting requirements, and reliance on external implementers shaped U.S. Department of State oversight of UN education-related efforts in the West Bank and Gaza—followed by funding discontinuation when reporting and verification gaps persisted.
Read essay →Essay: Targeted States as Political Pressure Points
Political campaigns often treat socially tense issues as deployable levers: they concentrate attention on electorally meaningful states, elevate symbolic conflicts, and use recurring coverage cycles to create sustained pressure. Minnesota offers a case where national messaging, local incidents, and media amplification interact in ways that can reshape incentives for officials and communities.
Read essay →Essay: How Hybrid Outreach Events Turn Rules Into Workable Compliance
Regulatory outreach events—especially hybrid sessions—operate as a process layer between formal rules and day-to-day implementation, translating requirements into shared procedures and reducing avoidable compliance friction for smaller regulated firms.
Read essay →When Truth Becomes Optional
How accountability weakens without anyone being silenced
Read essay →Pressure Works Better Than Censorship
Why modern power prefers hesitation over suppression
Read essay →Corporate Power and the Fog of Accountability
How incentives replace censorship in modern institutions
Read essay →Ownership, Power & Media
Why structure changes incentives without requiring bad faith
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