Theatre

Theatre (in this corpus) names a structural failure: a quality or legitimacy mechanism exists on paper, in workflow, or in audit export — but operationally does not change what the bind would have been without it. The organisation buys appearance without paying the cost of independent judgment, transparent rules, or proper authorization.

Introduction: Meritocracy — The Sweet Spot — failure-mode column in the quality / legitimacy / meritocracy table.

Quality-side theatre

Mechanisms from art. 20 performed but hollow:

• Rubber-stamp approval — review that never changes outcomes
• Undisclosed stress tests — challenges hidden from auditors
• Anchored “independent” review — second reader sees first conclusion first
• Compliance theatre — umbrella for quality-side instances

Legitimacy-side theatre

Mechanisms from art. 35 performed but hollow:

• Credential theatre — badge without scope, or scope ignored
• Vote on physics — democratic process on a knowable D-F answer
• Post-hoc threshold or weight adjustment — rules changed after votes are visible
• Unanimity with unsafe dissent — forced alignment dressed as consensus

Meritocracy-side theatre

A panel called meritocratic while weights trace to rank, post-hoc negotiation, or unmeasured “expertise” — indistinguishable from politics without replayable track records.

Corpus stance

A2 — working context: “Theatre” is ordinary language for hollow performance; here it marks architectural diagnosis at the commitment boundary. Prefer named failure modes (compliance theatre, credential theatre, …) when the instance is known.