Problem
Arbitrariness
Experimental visualization of narrower problems
Other Names:
Caprice Nature:
Arbitrariness is the quality of being "determined by chance, whim, or impulse, and not by necessity, reason, or principle". It is also used to refer to a choice made without any specific criterion or restraint.
Arbitrary decisions are not necessarily the same as random decisions. For example, during the 1973 oil crisis, Americans were allowed to purchase gasoline only on odd-numbered days if their license plate was odd, and on even-numbered days if their license plate was even. The system was well-defined and not random in its restrictions; however, since license plate numbers are completely unrelated to a person's fitness to purchase gasoline, it was still an arbitrary division of people. Similarly, schoolchildren are often organized by their surname in alphabetical order, a non-random yet an arbitrary method—at least in cases where surnames are irrelevant.
Narrower Problems:
ExpulsionArbitrary exileParole violationLegal inconsistencyExtra-legal executionsArbitrary street searchInfringement of privacyInconsistent port chargesAbusive national leadershipArbitrary job qualificationsInadequately worded agreementsUnnatural boundaries between statesArbitrary enforcement of regulationsGovernment expropriation of private propertyArbitrary external interference in family lifeArbitrary evaluation of disability compensation Related Problems:
Internment without trial Aggravates:
ContradictionLack of qualitySocial injustice Strategies:
Being capricious Subject(s):
Management → PlanningRelated UN Sustainable Development Goals:
Problem Type:
F: Fuzzy exceptional problems Date of last update
15.10.2020 – 18:25 CEST