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| A '''bureaucracy''' is "a body of nonelective government officials" and/or "an administrative policy-making group."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bureaucracy |title=Bureaucracy - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary |publisher=Merriam-webster.com |date= |accessdate=2013-05-26}}</ref> Historically, bureaucracy referred to ] managed by departments staffed with nonelected officials.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thefreedictionary.com/bureaucracy |title=definition of bureaucracy|publisher=Thefreedictionary.com |date= |accessdate=2013-05-26}}</ref> In modern parlance, bureaucracy refers to the administrative system governing any large institution.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/bureaucracy.asp#axzz2938hwENQ |title=Bureaucracy Definition |publisher=Investopedia |date=2009-09-04 |accessdate=2013-05-26}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/04/to-fix-americas-education-bureaucracy-we-need-to-destroy-it/255173/|title=To Fix America's Education Bureaucracy, We Need to Destroy It|author=Philip K. Howard|magazine=The Atlantic|year=2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/health-insurance-denials-delays-target-lawmakers/story?id=8590781#.UHevw7T3C2w|author=Devin Dwyer|title=Victims of 'Health Insurance Bureaucracy' Speak Out|year=2009|magazine=ABC News}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|author=David Martin|title=Gates Criticizes Bloated Military Bureaucracy|year=2010|magazine=CBS News|url=http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-6470348.html}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/money/jobcenter/workplace/rules/2002-11-08-corporate-bureaucracy_x.htm |title=How to bend the rules of corporate bureaucracy |publisher=Usatoday30.usatoday.com |date=2002-11-08 |accessdate=2013-05-26}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.americancatholic.org/features/johnpaulii/transition/paperwork.asp |title=Still a bureaucracy: Normal paperwork continues its flow at Vatican |publisher=Americancatholic.org |date= |accessdate=2013-05-26}}</ref> | |||
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| Since being coined, the word "bureaucracy" has developed negative connotations for some.<ref name="Handbook">{{cite book|author=J.C.N. Raadschelders|title=Handbook of Administrative History|year=1998|publisher=Transaction Publishers|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=3iSkH1Qf6xsC&pg=PA142&lpg=PA142|page=142}}</ref> Bureaucracies are criticized for their complexity, their inefficiency, and their inflexibility.<ref>http://www.nber.org/chapters/c8632.pdf</ref> The dehumanizing effects of excessive bureaucracy were a major theme in the work of ], and were central to his masterpiece '']''.<ref>http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/1289575?uid=3739832&uid=2134&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=21101256148001</ref> The elimination of unnecessary bureaucracy is a key concept in modern managerial theory,<ref name="Evolution">{{cite book|title=The Evolution of Management Thought|url=http://embanet.vo.llnwd.net/o18/USC/CMGT500/Week1/docs/CMGT500_w01_Chapter10.pdf|author=Wren, Daniel & Bedeian, Arthur|year=2009|chapter=Chapter 10:The Emergence of the Management Process and Organization Theory|publisher=Wiley}}</ref> and has been a central issue in numerous political campaigns.<ref name="Bureaucracy Bashing">{{cite paper|author=Garrett et al.|title=Assessing the Impact of Bureaucracy Bashing by Electoral Campaigns|url=http://www.library.eiu.edu/ersvdocs/4367.pdf|year=2006}}</ref> | |||
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| Others have defended the existence of bureaucracies. The German sociologist ] argued that bureaucracy constitutes the most efficient and rational way in which human activity can be organized, and that systematic processes and organized hierarchies were necessary to maintain order, maximize efficiency and eliminate favoritism.<ref>{{dead link|date=May 2013}}</ref> But even Weber saw bureaucracy as a threat to individual freedom, in which the increasing bureaucratization of human life traps individuals in an "iron cage" of rule-based, rational control.<ref name="Bureaucratic"/><ref name="GRitzer"/> | |||
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| ==Word origin and usage== | |||
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| The term "bureaucracy" is French in origin, and combines the French word ''bureau'' – desk or office – with the Greek word κράτος ''kratos'' – rule or political power.<ref name="merriam-webster1">{{cite web|url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bureaucracy |title=Bureaucracy - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary |publisher=Merriam-webster.com |date= |accessdate=2013-05-26}}</ref> It was coined sometime in the mid-1700s by the French economist ],{{cn|date=July 2013}} and was a satirical pejorative from the outset.{{or|date=July 2013}} Gournay never wrote the term down, but was later quoted at length in a letter from a contemporary: | |||
| {{quotation|The late M. de Gournay...sometimes used to say: "We have an illness in France which bids fair to play havoc with us; this illness is called bureaumania." Sometimes he used to invent a fourth or fifth form of government under the heading of "bureaucracy."|]<ref name="Handbook"/>}} | |||
| The first known English-language use was in 1818.<ref name="merriam-webster1"/> The 19th-century definition referred to a system of governance in which offices were held by unelected career officials, and in this sense "bureaucracy" was seen as a distinct form of government, often subservient to a monarchy.<ref name="google1">{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=KtFI15WCr_8C&lpg=PP1&pg=PA3#v=onepage&q&f=false |title=Bureaucracy |first=David|last= Beetham|publisher=Books.google.com |date= |accessdate=2013-05-26}}</ref> In the 1920s, the definition was expanded by the German sociologist ] to include any system of administration conducted by trained professionals according to fixed rules.<ref name="google1"/> Weber saw the bureaucracy as a relatively positive development; however by 1944, the Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises noted that the term bureaucracy was "always applied with an opprobrious connotation,"<ref name="Mises"/> and by 1957 the American sociologist Robert Merton noted that the term "]" had become an ].<ref name="Merton"/> | |||
| ==History== | |||
| Although the term "bureaucracy" was not coined until the mid-1700s, the idea of rule-bound administrative systems is much older. The development of ] (ca. 3500 BCE) and the use of documents was critical to the administration of this system, and the first definitive emergence of bureaucracy is in ancient ], where an emergent class of ] administered the harvest and allocated its spoils. ] also had a hereditary class of scribes that administered the ] bureaucracy. Much of what is known today of these cultures comes from the writing of the scribes. | |||
| ] was administered by a hierarchy of regional proconsuls and their deputies. The reforms of ] doubled the number of administrative districts and led to a large-scale expansion in Roman bureaucracy.<ref>As taken from the '']'' or ''Verona List'', reproduced in Barnes, ''New Empire'', chs. 12–13 (with corrections in T.D. Barnes, "Emperors, panegyrics, prefects, provinces and palaces (284–317)", ''Journal of Roman Archaeology'' 9 (1996): 539–42). See also: Barnes, ''Constantine and Eusebius'', 9; Cascio, "The New State of Diocletian and Constantine" (CAH), 179; Rees, ''Diocletian and the Tetrarchy'', 24–27.</ref> In one of the earliest-recorded criticisms of bureaucracy, the early Christian author ] claimed that Diocletian's actions had led to widespread economic stagnation, and that there were now more men using tax money than paying it.<ref name="Lactantius">{{cite book|author=]|title=On the Manner in which the Persecutors Died|chapter=Chapter 7|url=http://people.ucalgary.ca/~vandersp/Courses/texts/lactant/lactpers.html#VII}}</ref> After the Empire split, the ] became notorious for its inscrutable bureaucracy, and the term "byzantine" came to refer to highly-complicated bureaucratic structures.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/byzantine |title=Byzantine - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary |publisher=Merriam-webster.com |date=2012-08-31 |accessdate=2013-05-26}}</ref> | |||
| In ], the scholar ] established a complex system of rigorous procedures governing relationships in family, religion and politics. Confucius sought to construct an organized state free from corruption.<ref name="Confucius">{{cite book|author=Riegel, Jeffrey|chapter=Confucius|title=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2012 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.)|url =http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2012/entries/confucius/}}</ref> In Imperial China, the bureaucracy was headed by a Chief Counselor.<ref name="Mote2003">{{cite book|last=Mote|first=Frederick W.|title=Imperial China: 900-1800|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=SQWW7QgUH4gC&pg=PA313|accessdate=7 February 2013|date=2003-11-15|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-674-01212-7 |pages=313–}}</ref> Within the bureaucracy, the positions were of a "graded civil service" and competitive exams were held to determine who held positions.<ref name="McKnight1983">{{cite book|last=McKnight|first=Brian E.|title=Village and Bureaucracy in Southern Sung China|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=SEr8_6LieVMC&pg=PA1|accessdate=7 February 2013|date=1983-02-15|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-56060-1|pages=1–}}</ref> The upper levels of the system held nine grades, and the officials wore distinctive clothing.<ref name="McKnight1983"/> The ] codified a set of values held by the officials.<ref name="McKnight1983"/> | |||
| Under ], the old nobility had neither power nor political influence, the sum of their privileges being confined to their exemption from taxes. Their spokesmen complained about this "unnatural" state of affairs, but as they were forbidden to express their criticism in France, their writings were published in Holland. These aristocrats discovered similarities between ] and the ] of ].<ref name="Jacoby1973">{{cite book|author=Henry Jacoby|title=The Bureaucratization of the World|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=zGwVaki8uXIC&pg=PA43|accessdate=16 September 2013|date=1 January 1973|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-02083-2|page=43}}</ref> In 18th-century ], the role and function of government expanded dramatically. The rise of the French civil service led to "bureaumania," and the development of the complex systems of bureaucracy which de Gournay criticized. In the early 19th century, ] attempted to reform the bureaucracies of France and other territories under his control by the imposition of the standardized ]. But paradoxically, this led to even further growth of the bureaucracy.<ref>{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=3iSkH1Qf6xsC&pg=PA142&lpg=PA142 |title=Handbook of Administrative History - Paper - J. C. N. Raadschelders|publisher=Books.google.com |date= |accessdate=2013-05-26}}</ref> | |||
| By the early 19th century, bureaucratic forms of administration were firmly in place across continental Europe, North America and much of Asia. Thinkers like ] and ] began to theorize about the economic functions and power-structures of bureaucracy in contemporary life. Max Weber was the first to endorse bureaucracy as a necessary feature of modernity, and by the late 19th century bureaucratic forms had begun their spread from government to other large-scale institutions.<ref name="google1"/> | |||
| The trend toward increased bureaucratization continued in the 20th century, and, in the modern era, practically all organized institutions rely on bureaucracy to organize tasks. They do this by processing and controlling records and information ("the files"), and administer a systems of rules. | |||
| ==Theories of bureaucracy== | |||
| ===Karl Marx=== | |||
| ] theorized about the role and function of bureaucracy in his '']'', published in 1843. In his '']'', ] had supported the role of specialized officials in the role of ], although he never used the term "bureaucracy" himself. Marx by contrast was opposed to the bureaucracy. He saw the development of bureaucracy in government as a natural counterpart to the development of the ] in private society. Marx posited that while the corporation and government bureaucracy existed in seeming opposition, in actuality they mutually relied on one another to exist. He wrote that "The Corporation is civil society's attempt to become state; but the bureaucracy is the state which has really made itself into civil society."<ref name="Marx1843"/> | |||
| ===John Stuart Mill=== | |||
| Writing in the late 1860s, political scientist ] theorized that successful monarchies were essentially bureaucracies, and found evidence of their existence in ], the ], and the regimes of Europe. Mill referred to bureaucracy as a distinct form of government, separate from representative democracy. He believed bureaucracies had certain advantages, most importantly the accumulation of experience in those who actually conduct the affairs. Nevertheless, he thought bureaucracy as a form of governance compared poorly to representative government, as it relied on appointment rather than direct election. Mill wrote that ultimately the bureaucracy stifles the mind, and that "A bureaucracy always tends to become a pedantocracy."<ref name="Mill"/> | |||
| ===Max Weber===<!--'Weberian bureaucracy' redirects here--> | |||
| The German sociologist ] described many ideal-typical forms of ], government,and business in his 1922 work '']''. His critical study of the bureaucratisation of society became one of the most enduring parts of his work.<ref name="Bureaucratic"/><ref name="Ritzer2009-38-42"/> It was Weber who began the studies of bureaucracy and whose works led to the popularization of this term.<ref name="BuSach"/> Many aspects of modern public administration go back to him, and a classic, hierarchically organized ] of the Continental type is called "Weberian civil service".<ref name="Hooghe2001"/> As the most efficient and rational way of organizing, bureaucratization for Weber was the key part of the rational-legal authority, and furthermore, he saw it as the key process in the ongoing ] of the ].<ref name="Bureaucratic"/><ref name="Ritzer2009-38-42"/> Although he is not necessarily a fan of bureaucracy, Weber does argue that bureaucracy constitutes the most efficient and (formally) rational way in which human activity can be organized, and that thus is indispensable to the modern world.<ref>http://books.google.ca/books?id=_c3Mcnh8hCgC&pg=PA19&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false</ref> | |||
| <center>{{Quotation|Bureaucratic administration means fundamentally domination through knowledge|Max Weber<ref name="Bureaucratic"/>}}</center> | |||
| Weber listed several precondititions for the ] of bureaucracy.<ref name="AllanAllan2005-172-176"/> The growth in space and population being administered, the growth in complexity of the administrative tasks being carried out, and the existence of a ] requiring a more efficient administrative system.<ref name="AllanAllan2005-172-176"/> Development of ] and ] technologies make more efficient administration possible but also in popular demand, and ] and rationalization of culture resulted in demands that the new system treats everybody ].<ref name="AllanAllan2005-172-176"/> | |||
| Weber's ideal-typical bureaucracy is characterized by hierarchical organization, delineated lines of authority in a fixed area of activity, action taken on the basis of and recorded in written rules, bureaucratic officials need expert training, rules are implemented by neutral officials, career advancement depends on technical qualifications judged by organization, not individuals.<ref name="Bureaucratic"/><ref name="AllanAllan2005-172-176"/> | |||
| While recognizing bureaucracy as the most efficient form of organization, and even indispensable for the modern state, Weber also saw it as a threat to ]s, and the ongoing bureaucratization as leading to a "polar night of icy darkness", in which increasing rationalization of human life traps individuals in a soulless "]" of bureaucratic, rule-based, rational control.<ref name="Bureaucratic"/><ref name="GRitzer"/> | |||
| ===Woodrow Wilson=== | |||
| Writing as an academic while a professor at ], his essay “]” | |||
| <ref>Woodrow Wilson, "The Study of Administration", Political Science Quarterly, July 1887</ref> argued for a bureaucracy as a professional cadre, devoid of allegiance to fleeting politics of the day. Wilson advocated a bureaucracy that "is a part of political life only as the methods of the counting house are a part of the life of society; only as machinery is part of the manufactured product. But it is, at the same time, raised very far above the dull level of mere technical detail by the fact that through its greater principles it is directly connected with the lasting maxims of political wisdom, the permanent truths of political progress." | |||
| Wilson did not advocate a replacement of rule by the governed, he simply advised "Administrative questions are not political questions. Although politics sets the tasks for administration, it should not be suffered to manipulate its offices." This essay became the foundation for the study of public administration in America. | |||
| ===Ludwig von Mises=== | |||
| In his 1944 work ''Bureaucracy'', the Austrian economist ] was highly critical of all bureaucratic systems. He believed that bureaucracy should be the target of universal opprobrium, and noticed that in the political sphere it had few defenders, even among progressives. Mises saw bureaucratic processes at work in both the private and public spheres; however he believed that bureaucratization in the private sphere could only occur as a consequence of government interference. He wrote that "No private enterprise will ever fall prey to bureaucratic methods of management if it is operated with the sole aim of making profit."<ref name="Mises"/> | |||
| ===Robert K. Merton=== | |||
| The American sociologist ] expanded on Weber's theories of bureaucracy in his work ''Social Theory and Social Structure'', published in 1957. While Merton agreed with certain aspects of Weber's analysis, he also considered the dysfunctional aspects of bureaucracy, which he attributed to a "trained incapacity" resulting from "overconformity." He saw bureaucrats as more likely to defend their own entrenched interests than to act to benefit the organization as a whole. He also believed bureaucrats took pride in their craft, which led them to resist changes in established routines. Merton also noted that bureaucrats emphasized formality over interpersonal relationships, and had been trained to ignore the special circumstances of particular cases, causing them to come across as "arrogant" and "haughty."<ref name="Merton"/> | |||
| ==See also== | |||
| * ] – The opposite of bureaucracy | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] – An alternative to bureaucracy and adhocracy | |||
| * ] – Excessive bureaucratic regulation | |||
| ==References== | |||
| {{reflist|30em|refs= | |||
| <ref name="AllanAllan2005-172-176">{{cite book|author1=Kenneth Allan|author2=Kenneth D. Allan|title=Explorations in Classical Sociological Theory: Seeing the Social Worl|date=2 November 2005|publisher=Pine Forge Press|isbn=978-1-4129-0572-5 |pages=172–176}}</ref> | |||
| <ref name="BuSach">{{cite book|author1=Marshall Sashkin|author2=Molly G. Sashkin|title=Leadership that matters: the critical factors for making a difference in people's lives and organizations' success|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=q12zbgs-jyYC&pg=PA52|accessdate=22 March 2011|date=28 January 2003|publisher=Berrett-Koehler Publishers|isbn=978-1-57675-193-0|page=52}}</ref> | |||
| <ref name="Bureaucratic">{{cite book|author1=Richard Swedberg|author2=Ola Agevall|title=The Max Weber dictionary: key words and central concepts|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=_c3Mcnh8hCgC&pg=PA19|accessdate=23 March 2011|year=2005|publisher=Stanford University Press|isbn=978-0-8047-5095-0|pages=18–21}}</ref> | |||
| <ref name = "Mises">{{cite book|author=]|url=http://mises.org/etexts/mises/bureaucracy.asp|accessdate=12 October 2012|title=Bureaucracy|year=1944}}</ref> | |||
| <ref name="Mill">{{cite book|author=]|url=http://www.gutenberg.org/files/5669/5669-h/5669-h.htm#2HCH0006|accessdate=12 October 2012|title=Considerations on Representative Government|year=1861|chapter=VI—Of the Infirmities and Dangers to which Representative Government is Liable}}</ref> | |||
| <ref name="GRitzer">], ''Enchanting a Disenchanted World: Revolutionizing the Means of Consumption'', Pine Forge Press, 2004, ISBN 0-7619-8819-X, </ref> | |||
| <ref name="Hooghe2001">{{cite book|author=Liesbet Hooghe|title=The European Commission and the integration of Europe: images of governance|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=e15KnRiGipYC&pg=PA40|accessdate=23 March 2011|year=2001|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-00143-4|page=40}}</ref> | |||
| <ref name="Hooghe2001">{{cite book|author=Liesbet Hooghe|title=The European Commission and the integration of Europe: images of governance|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=e15KnRiGipYC&pg=PA40|accessdate=24 March 2011|year=2001|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-00143-4|pages=40–}}</ref> | |||
| <ref name = "Merton">{{cite book|author=]|title=Social Theory and Social Structure|url=http://www.sociosite.net/topics/texts/merton_bureaucratic_structure.php|accessdate=12 October 2012|year=1957|publisher=Glencoe, IL;Free Press|pages=195–206}}</ref> | |||
| <ref name = "Marx1843">{{cite book|author=]|title=Marx's Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right (1843)|url=http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1843/critique-hpr/ch03.htm|accessdate=12 October 2012|year=1970|publisher=Cambridge University Press|chapter=3A}}</ref> | |||
| <ref name="Ritzer2009-38-42">{{cite book|author=George Ritzer|title=Contemporary Sociological Theory and Its Classical Roots: The Basics|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=pX6pPwAACAAJ|accessdate=22 March 2011|date=29 September 2009|publisher=McGraw-Hill|isbn=978-0-07-340438-7|pages=38–42}}</ref> | |||
| <!-- <ref name="entrepreneurial">Osborne, David and Gaebler, Ted. Reinventing Government : How the Entrepreneurial Spirit is Transforming the Public Sector. Plume. February, 1993. ISBN 0-452-26942-3</ref> --> | |||
| }} | |||
| ==Further reading== | |||
| {{Wikiquote}} | |||
| {{Commons category|Bureaucracy}} | |||
| * Albrow, Martin. Bureaucracy. London: Macmillan, 1970. | |||
| * On Karl Marx: Hal Draper, ''Karl Marx's Theory of Revolution, Volume 1: State and Bureaucracy''. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1979. | |||
| * Marx comments on the state bureaucracy in his '''' and Engels discusses the origins of the state in ''''. | |||
| *Ernest Mandel, ''Power and Money: A Marxist Theory of Bureaucracy''. London: Verso, 1992. | |||
| * On Weber: {{cite book | first=Tony J. | last=Watson | coauthors= | title=Sociology, Work and Industry | publisher=Routledge | location= | year=1980 | editor= | isbn=0-415-32165-4}} | |||
| *Neil Garston (ed.), ''Bureaucracy: Three Paradigms''. Boston: Kluwer, 1993. | |||
| *Chowdhury, Faizul Latif (2006), ''Corrupt Bureaucracy and Privatization of Tax Enforcement''. Dhaka: Pathak Samabesh, ISBN 984-8120-62-9. | |||
| *Ludwig von Mises, '''', Yale University Press, 1962. Liberty Fund (2007), ISBN 978-0-86597-663-4 | |||
| *Weber, Max. The Theory of Social and Economic Organization. Translated by A.M. Henderson and Talcott Parsons. London: Collier Macmillan Publishers, 1947. | |||
| *{{Cite book | first=James Q. | last=Wilson | coauthors= | title=Bureaucracy | publisher=Basic Books | year=1989 | isbn=0-465-00785--6}} | |||
| {{Civil service}} | |||
| {{Law}} | |||
| {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2011}} | |||
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