Childhood’s End

When things stop working in an organizational system—a firm, a nonprofit, or a political entity—people have two choices in addressing the failure: to leave or to protest. Both can be powerful. As the author of this thesis, economist Albert Hirschman, pointed out in his 1970 book Exit, Voice, and Loyalty, it is possible for even an entire country (e.g., the United States or Liberia) to be created by people who leave behind unhappy circumstances and start something new elsewhere. Likewise, examples of the success of protest (“voice” and related action) in achieving major changes are plentiful. Consider the French Revolution and the multitude of regime changes and coups d’état that dot human history—not to mention the many times that a regime has been replaced by popular demand of voters.