From the fall of Troy, selected in her book as the symbolic prototype of a freely chosen calamity, to America’s disastrous involvement in Vietnam, she analysed a phenomenon that recurs throughout history. “Mankind,” she wrote, “makes a poorer performance of government than of almost any other human activity.” Her book examined what she called the pursuit of policy contrary to the self-interest of the state or constituency involved. Tuchman defined self-interest as “whatever conduces to the welfare and advantage of the body being governed”. From that follows her conception of folly: a policy that is counterproductive in these terms.
To be considered folly, the policy or a course of action must meet three criteria. It must be seen as counterproductive at that time, and not by hindsight. Two, a feasible alternative course of action must have been available. And three, to distinguish folly in government from the capricious whims of a single person, “the policy in question should be that of a group, not an individual ruler”.