'Entertaining insightful ... compelling' Financial Times'A clear and compelling account of how
decision-making works or rather doesn't in the twenty-first century. It will make you look at
the world differently' Stephen BushWhen 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.
