Definition
A condition in which adapting to a defective system is voluntary on paper, but refusing is not a real option. Refusal brings serious harm, system breakdown, or moral sanction. No one issues a command. The coercion runs through dependency, unequal exit costs, and professional norms turned against the people who hold them.
StructuralAgency
Tests that show it is in place
- The institution can state what happens, materially and in working relationships, to someone who uses their formal right to refuse an undocumented workaround.
- Compliance does not rest on an exit cost that falls only on the less powerful party.
Hypothetical example
- A clinician cannot decline unpaid documentation workarounds, because stopping would endanger patients. Their care for patients becomes an operating subsidy.
References
- The human subsidy to institutional continuity · Theory
- Compulsory heroism · Term