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Themes

Fiction Lab / Theme

Emergency authority

How decision rights change in crisis and return after stabilisation.

Why it matters

Crisis can justify speed and concentration, but temporary power tends to persist without scope, review and expiry.

Recurring mechanisms

1

Emergency powers activate without expiry

2

Uncertainty is simplified out of the dashboard

3

Technical recovery precedes governance recovery

Five system dimensions

authority

Exceptional power has scope and revocation

information

Facts, estimates and unknowns remain separate

resources

Allocation rules expose distributed harm

incentives

Local and central priorities are negotiated

adaptation

Recovery returns services and rights

Discussion prompt

How should decision rights change during a crisis, and who decides when normal governance returns?