Effective government keeps capacity in reserve

Russia's failure to admit systemic problems also exposes a broader distinction between efficient and effective government. An efficient system minimizes unused resources, while an effective one may retain ships, disaster-response systems, or other reserve capacity that is rarely needed in full. Those qualities can overlap, but pressure to remove apparent slack often leaves a state unable to respond when war or crisis creates exceptional demand. Tsarist Russia faced an even deeper problem because personal favor, rather than a stable definition of either efficiency or effectiveness, guided decisions. The distinction offers a general test of state capacity and readiness.