""In public policy, dependencies and unintended consequences matter. For example, ‘climate change’ and ‘population aging’ are key drivers of migration and cannot be ignored when designing immigration policies. Also, ‘deforestation’ not only leads to ‘global warming’, but also drives wild animals closer to humans - increasing the likelihood of viral infections, via ‘cross-species leaps’. As a result, most decisions cannot be taken in isolation: solving problems in one place is likely to create new ones, elsewhere. Also, well-intentioned policy choices can often provide perverse incentives - and obtain the opposite of their stated objectives. The phenomenon is known as the “cobra effect”: in India, during British rule, the authorities’ bounty on dead cobras resulted in a larger cobra population. In other words, policy making: 1) relies on a complex, interrelated context; and 2) can lead to unpredictable, non-linear outcomes"."

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Added on April 10, 2026
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https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alessandro_Magnoli_Bocchi