LONGLISTED FOR THE FINANCIAL TIMES AND SCHRODERS BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR 2024 'A great
book ... a wonderful way of talking about our current world' Rory Stewart 'Entertaining
insightful ... compelling' Financial Times 'Clear and compelling ... it will make you look
at the world differently' Stephen Bush 'The kind of book from which you look up to find the
world suddenly more comprehensible. Also it's about ten times funnier than any book about
management has the right to be' Guardian When we avoid taking a decision what happens to it?
In The Unaccountability Machine Dan Davies examines why markets institutions and even
governments systematically generate outcomes that everyone involved claims not to want. He
casts new light on the writing of Stafford Beer a legendary economist who argued in the 1950s
that we should regard organisations as artificial intelligences capable of taking decisions
that are distinct from the intentions of their members. Management cybernetics was Beer's
science of applying self-regulation in organisational settings but it was largely ignored -
with the result being the political and economic crises that that we see today. With his
signature blend of cynicism and journalistic rigour Davies looks at what's gone wrong and
what might have been had the world listened to Stafford Beer when it had the chance.
