Follow a public promise through offices and the implementation chain.
State capacity / Interactive investigation
The Overloaded State
You passed the law. Why is nothing happening?
The law passed. The promise stalled. Follow it into a jammed bureaucracy, find the bottleneck and decide what a reform would have to change before people feel a difference.
Free to play · 90–120 min · No student account

Allocate work and inspect what each bottleneck prevents.
Use the case records to explain a reform, its limits and a further test.
Your turn
Make a choice. Follow it through.
Explore independently, or choose For Class and complete the full activity. Save a progress backup before moving between devices or websites.
For instructors
Give the argument somewhere to go.
Self-contained introduction; no advance reading required.
Look for a specific mechanism, a rival account, a feasible reform and an evaluation matched to the claimed effect.
For Class requires Full and the final report action before assignment printing or downloads. Class responses are typed in the activity. A completion check is a record of work; written reasoning needs a human reader.
Teach it. Take it with you.
- Teaching guide · goals, discussion and assessment
- Student guide · save and submit
- Download game · standalone HTML
The HTML game works offline. Guide and original-source links use the internet. Progress backups restore work; reports are for reading and submission.
Keep the claim within the evidence.
A proposed reform is a hypothesis. Do not treat a programmed outcome as a measured real-world reform effect.