Parkinsons Law, an observation advanced by the British civil servant

Question

Parkinson’s Law, an observation advanced by the British civil servant C. Northcote Parkinson, for whom it is named, posits that bureaucracies expand to fill the space available for their expansion. One of Parkinson’s principal pieces of evidence for his Law was the remarkable growth of the British Colonial Office, whose staff continued to swell as the British colonies weakened, and which actually attained its greatest size and influence at the precise moment the British colonial empire collapsed.

Which of the following does NOT illustrate a phenomenon similar to those covered by Parkinson’s Law?

A. The demand for military research tends to correlate positively with the amount of money governments allot to the military each year.

B. The bigger the pie that my aunt bakes, the more of my relatives show up to eat it.

C. Many prominent Hollywood sitcom writers attest that the time it takes to script an episode is dictated by the time a studio provides them to script that episode.

D. Parkinson’s coefficient of inefficiency further predicts that the efficiency of an administrative body decreases in proportion to the number of members added to it.

E. Most professional athletes remark that the amount of money required to sustain their families, image, and lifestyle grows as their income over the course of their careers.

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ribbons · Answer

Can someone please explain how they arrived at this answer ?

filipembribeiro · Answer

Ok, so let's give my answer to it.

The question correlates two concepts and prompts you to draw parallels with other situations. The correlation posits that  the larger bureaucracies become, the fewer spaces there are to occupy  because bureaucracy tends to expand wherever it finds room to do so. This suggests an inversely proportional relationship.

Also, the passage gives us a hint indicating that the British Colonial Office experienced significant growth during periods of colonial weakness and collapse, suggesting that larger bureaucracies may be associated with inefficiency. Option D reflects this exact idea, making us sure that it is the correct choice.

Therefore, Option D is correct.

Hope it helps,

Bunuel · Answer

VERITAS PREP OFFICIAL SOLUTION:

Solution: D

In Illustrate the Principle questions, start by making a checklist of the elements in the Principle itself: typically, the correct answer must have all the same elements. In our case, the principle is “if the space for something expands, that thing will expand to fill the extra space,” so to illustrate the principle we need two things:
1) something expanding or growing, and 2) something else expanding to fill it. A, B, C, and E all feature both those elements, so they illustrate the principle.

D features a different metric (efficiency) DECREASING, the opposite of the principle, so in this rare question type where we want something that does NOT illustrate, it’s the correct answer.

Rutvik01 · Answer

Can someone explain why is E wrong?

VerbalBot · Answer

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Parkinsons Law, an observation advanced by the British civil servant

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Parkinsons Law, an observation advanced by the British civil servant

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