Parkinson's Fourth Law: The number of people in any working group tends to increase regardless of the amount of work to be done.

Expansion means complexity and complexity decay.

A committee is organic rather than mechanical in its nature: it is not a structure but a plant. It takes root and grows, it flowers, wilts, and dies, scattering the seed from which other committees will bloom in their turn.

Make the people sovereign and the poor will use the machinery of government to dispossess the rich.

The man who is denied the opportunity of taking decisions of importance begins to regard as important the decisions he is allowed to take. He becomes fussy about filing, keen on seeing that pencils are sharpened, eager to ensure that the windows are open (or shut) and apt to use two or three different-colored inks.

It is now well known, however, that men enter local politics solely as a result of being unhappily married.

Deliberative bodies become decreasingly effective after they pass five to eight members.