Responsibility Locking and Error Correction: A Minimal Theory of the Structural Conditions for Maintaining Effective Correction

This paper develops Responsibility Locking and Error Correction Theory (RLET), a minimal structural account of the conditions under which purposive human correction can remain effective. It begins from the Misesian insight that human action is purposive, but reformulates action structurally as corrective resource allocation under scarcity, signal imperfection, and deviation. The paper identifies three core elements of effective correction: available support, responsibility locking, and corrective effectiveness. It then derives the basic burden–capacity relation under which correction can be maintained, and decomposes the structural burden of an action domain into baseline structural burden, signal generation cost, signal distortion, action cost, and coordination cost. The theory further develops the capacity side of correction by distinguishing initial support from combinatory support and by showing how coordination density, functional differentiation, knowledge structure, and institutionalization affect the expansion or exhaustion of corrective capacity. It also examines endogenous dynamics, responsibility-locking forms, cross-domain capacity transfer, spillover, cascade, and the conditions under which market coordination, organizational governance, and state responsibility can support or fail to support effective correction. The paper concludes by positioning the Action Domain Index (ADI) as an observational layer rather than a governance or normative-ranking tool.