Conjecture

Accountability by shame binds only people who know each other, so a stranger who steps into a local institution keeps the role's powers and sheds its brakes. Ansary's ch. 21: "Shame was a fundamental mechanism of administration in the Islamic societies of the Middle World"; at ground level "taxpayers and tax collectors not only knew each other, but might be related." The British treated Bengal as their tax farm "in the accepted manner," but "jacked up land taxes by 500% or more because they didn't know these people or feel connected to them, so they weren't hemmed in by tribal shaming"; then famines, "the worst of which claimed an estimated 10 million lives." Clay's step, which is speculation: agents placed in roles that humans govern by reputation inherit the authority without the social brake, so correction has to be written into the role, not left to norms.

Keeping power in check