Tyranny of Small Decisions
A situation where a series of small, individually rational decisions can negatively change the context of subsequent choices, even to the point where desired alternatives are irreversibly destroyed.
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Origin
In 1966, Cornell University economist Alfred E. Kahn published an essay in the Swiss journal Kyklos coining the phrase "tyranny of small decisions." His motivating example was close to home: the quiet collapse of passenger rail service in Ithaca, New York, where individual travelers' incremental choices to drive or fly eventually destroyed a service that many residents would have collectively voted to keep. In 1982, ecologist William Odum extended the idea to environmental degradation, broadening its reach far beyond economics.
Updated February 22, 2026