ABSTRACT
Chapters 1 and 2 in Part I explained that performance measurement can have both positive and perverse effects; Chapter 3 went on to present five laws. The best case is when these laws do not operate. The worst case is when all five operate simultaneously, which means that the system is perverted (Law of Decreasing Effectiveness), is hugely bloated (Law of Mushrooming), is used anyway and leads to Collective Blindness, while insufficient incentives exist for abandoning the system (Law of the Preservation of Perverted Systems and Law of Decreasing Political Attention). If the five laws operate simultaneously, it means that a performance measurement system is perverted through and through, but is resistant at the same time: there are too few incentives to abandon it.
