The TVA is arguably the most storied bureaucracy in the United States; it is the go-to example for arguing about bureaucracy itself at the federal level, for example in political science curricula. The agency was founded in 1933 to economically develop the greater Tennessee Valley region. This was to be done with water management and electricity generation, in particular through hydropower.
It doesn’t match the “save the time of a competent person” description of purpose at all; economic development is not a routine competent-person task. It matches better the description of doing things one person cannot do at all. It is worth mentioning that in the 1920s Henry Ford attempted to build a private utility around the federal dam in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, which was claimed by its proponents to serve the same goals for which the TVA was created—this was blocked by Senator George Norris of Nebraska, who also drove the creation of the TVA.
By the standards Samo sets out, this would be an abandoned and ineffective bureaucracy; the creator is long dead, and the Great Depression long resolved. The area it serves has electricity, uses modern agricultural practices, etc. The authority is famous for having accumulated a bunch of tasks unrelated to the original function over the years; if I recall correctly at one point it was responsible for approving the specifications on what screws were to be used for all federal government projects.
Even from the outset it spent a lot of effort on things within the purview of its purpose but nominally outside of its mission. The dam manufactured fertilizer, the TVA spent a lot of time and effort modernizing local agricultural practices, and they had a role in providing vaccinations.
This example does not seem to match Samo’s system very closely.
The Tennessee Valley Authority
The TVA is arguably the most storied bureaucracy in the United States; it is the go-to example for arguing about bureaucracy itself at the federal level, for example in political science curricula. The agency was founded in 1933 to economically develop the greater Tennessee Valley region. This was to be done with water management and electricity generation, in particular through hydropower.
It doesn’t match the “save the time of a competent person” description of purpose at all; economic development is not a routine competent-person task. It matches better the description of doing things one person cannot do at all. It is worth mentioning that in the 1920s Henry Ford attempted to build a private utility around the federal dam in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, which was claimed by its proponents to serve the same goals for which the TVA was created—this was blocked by Senator George Norris of Nebraska, who also drove the creation of the TVA.
By the standards Samo sets out, this would be an abandoned and ineffective bureaucracy; the creator is long dead, and the Great Depression long resolved. The area it serves has electricity, uses modern agricultural practices, etc. The authority is famous for having accumulated a bunch of tasks unrelated to the original function over the years; if I recall correctly at one point it was responsible for approving the specifications on what screws were to be used for all federal government projects.
Even from the outset it spent a lot of effort on things within the purview of its purpose but nominally outside of its mission. The dam manufactured fertilizer, the TVA spent a lot of time and effort modernizing local agricultural practices, and they had a role in providing vaccinations.
This example does not seem to match Samo’s system very closely.
You yourself wrote why it does seem, to me at least, to match Samo’s system well: