Can the institution design an effective intervention?
Legal capacity
Can the institution’s authority survive challenge?
Administrative capacity
Can the institution manage the operational complexity required?
Technical capacity
Can the institution’s systems support the required functions?
Contractor management
Can the institution effectively oversee external vendors?
Financial capacity
Are resources available and allocable?
Political capacity
Can the institution sustain support for the intervention?
Adaptive capacity
Can the institution diagnose failure and restructure its approach?
Rating Scale
Rating
Definition
Strong
Domain capability clearly present and demonstrated
Adequate
Domain capability sufficient for the task
Weak
Domain capability present but insufficient
Critically Absent
Domain capability not present when required
Unknown
Insufficient evidence to assess
Key Principle
Capacity is domain-specific. An institution may be strong in some domains and critically weak in others. The diagnosis must identify which domains were insufficient for the specific task, not issue a general judgment of “capable” or “incapable.”
Cross-Case Validation
Case #001: Department of Education showed strong administrative and technical capacity but weak legal capacity.
Case #002: CMS showed strong policy and legal capacity but critically weak technical and contractor management capacity.
Case #003: NHTSA showed adequate-to-strong capacity across all relevant domains.