Avoidable Collapse: Institutional Fragility and the Political Economy of Delay

By Allison Irene Hattingh

Modern societies rarely collapse because solutions are unavailable.
They collapse because decisions are deferred.
In Avoidable Collapse, Allison Irene examines how institutional fragility emerges not through sudden shocks, but through prolonged delay-where political incentives, economic structures, and energy constraints interact to narrow governing capacity over time.
Rather than focusing on moments of crisis, the book traces how capacity is gradually eroded: how dysfunction becomes normalized within institutionshow short-term stabilization displaces long-term planninghow delay itself evolves into a governing strategySituated within political economy and institutional analysis, Avoidable Collapse argues that breakdown is often foreseeable-and preventable-long before it appears inevitable.
This is not a prediction of catastrophe. It is an examination of how constraint, delay, and diminished capacity converge to produce outcomes that later appear unavoidable.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0GDYVSK8S
• ISBN13: 9798242259539
• Release Date: January 2026
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 114 Pages
• Weight: 0.36 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 6.0" x 9.0"