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{{Infobox presidential government | |||
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| date = {{start date and age|1789}} | |||
| jurisdiction = United States of America | |||
| url = {{URL|http://www.usa.gov/}} | |||
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{{Politics of the United States}} | |||
'''Bureaucracy''' ({{IPAc-en|b|j|ʊəˈr|ɒ|k|r|ə|s|i}}) refers to both a body of non-elective government officials and 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|accessdate=2013-05-26}}</ref> Historically, a bureaucracy was a ] managed by departments staffed with non-elected officials.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thefreedictionary.com/bureaucracy|title=definition of bureaucracy|publisher=Thefreedictionary.com|accessdate=2013-05-26}}</ref> Today, bureaucracy is the administrative system governing any large institution, whether publicly owned or privately owned.<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=https://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|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|accessdate=26 May 2013}}</ref><ref>Weber, Max "Bureaucracy" in Weber's Rationalism and Modern Society, translated and edited by Tony Waters and Dagmar Waters, Palgrave-Macmillan 2015. p. 114</ref> The ] in many countries is an example of a bureaucracy, but so is the centralized hierarchical structure of a business firm. | |||
The '''federal government of the United States''' ('''U.S. federal government''') is the ] of the ], a ] in ], composed of ], one district, ] (the nation's capital), and ]. The ] is composed of three distinct branches: ], ], and ], whose powers are vested by the ] in the ], the ], and the federal courts, respectively. The powers and duties of these branches are further defined by acts of Congress, including the creation of executive departments and courts inferior to the ]. | |||
Since being coined, the word ''bureaucracy'' has developed negative connotations.<ref name="Handbook">{{cite book|author=J.C.N. ]|title=Handbook of Administrative History|year=1998|publisher=Transaction Publishers|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3iSkH1Qf6xsC&pg=PA142&lpg=PA142|page=142}}</ref> Bureaucracies have been criticized as being inefficient, convoluted, or too inflexible to individuals.<ref name="Problem">{{cite book|accessdate=12 March 2014|author=Ronald N. Johnson|author2=Gary D. Libecap|publisher=University of Chicago Press|title=The Federal Civil Service System and the Problem of Bureaucracy|pages=1–11|year=1994|url=https://www.nber.org/chapters/c8632.pdf}}</ref> The dehumanizing effects of excessive bureaucracy became a major theme in the work of German-language writer ] and are central to his novels '']'' and '']''.<ref name="Moral Responsibility">{{cite journal|author=David Luban|author2=Alan Strudler|author3=David Wasserman|year=1992|title=Moral Responsibility in the Age of Bureaucracy|url= https://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/1289575?uid=3739832&uid=2134&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=21101256148001|journal=Michigan Law Review|volume=90|number=8}}</ref> The 1985 ] film '']'' by ] portrays a world in which small, otherwise insignificant errors in the bureaucratic processes of government develop into maddening and tragic consequences. The elimination of unnecessary bureaucracy is a key concept in modern ]<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|author-link=Wren, Daniel|author2=Bedeian, Arthur|author2-link=Bedeian, Arthur|year=2009|chapter=Chapter 10:The Emergence of the Management Process and Organization Theory|publisher= Wiley}}</ref> and has been an issue in some political campaigns.<ref name="Bureaucracy Bashing">{{cite journal|author=Garrett|title=Assessing the Impact of Bureaucracy Bashing by Electoral Campaigns|journal=Public Administration Review|pages=228–40|accessdate=12 March 2014|url=http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1540-6210.2006.00575.x/abstract;jsessionid=2FD22122F6968C33E4951B1014F42DC9.f03t01?deniedAccessCustomisedMessage=&userIsAuthenticated=false|date=March–April 2006|display-authors=etal|doi=10.1111/j.1540-6210.2006.00575.x}}</ref> | |||
== Naming == | |||
] | |||
The full name of the republic is "United States of America". No other name appears in the Constitution, and this is the name that appears on money, in treaties, and in legal cases to which it is a party (e.g. '']''). The terms "Government of the United States of America" or "United States Government" are often used in official documents to represent the federal government as distinct from the states collectively. In casual conversation or writing, the term "Federal Government" is often used, and the term "National Government" is sometimes used. The terms "Federal" and "National" in government agency or program names generally indicate affiliation with the federal government (], ], ]). Because the ] is in Washington, D.C., "Washington" is commonly used as a ] for the federal government. | |||
Others have noted the necessity of bureaucracies in modern life. The German sociologist ] argued that bureaucracy constitutes the most efficient and rational way in which one can organize the human activity and that systematic processes and organized hierarchies are necessary to maintain order, maximize efficiency, and eliminate favoritism. On the other hand, Weber also saw unfettered bureaucracy as a threat to ], with the potential of trapping individuals in an impersonal "]" of rule-based, rational control.<ref name="Bureaucratic"/><ref name="GRitzer"/> | |||
== History == | |||
The outline of the government of the United States is laid out in the ]. The government was formed in 1789, when the Constitution went into effect, making the United States the world's first modern national ].<ref>] p.208</ref> | |||
==Etymology and usage== | |||
The United States government is based on the principles of ] and ], in which power is shared between the federal government and ]. The interpretation and execution of these principles, including what powers the federal government should have and how those powers can be exercised, have been debated ever since the adoption of the Constitution. Some make the case for expansive federal powers while others argue for a more limited role for the central government in relation to individuals, the states, or other recognized entities. | |||
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 | type = definition | work = Merriam-Webster Dictionary |accessdate=2013-05-26}}</ref> It was coined in the mid-18th century by the French economist ]<ref>{{Citation | last = Riggs | first = Fred W | url = http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0003/000366/036645fo.pdf | format = ] |trans-title=Introduction: semantic evolution of the ‘bureaucracy’ term | language = fr | title = Introduction : Évolution sémantique du terme 'bureaucratie' | journal = Revue internationale des sciences sociales | publisher = Unesco | place = Paris | volume = XXX I | year = 1979 | number = 4}}.</ref> and was a satirical pejorative from the outset.<ref>Anter, Andreas. . ''Trivium'', 7; 6 December 2010.</ref> 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 dates to 1818.<ref name= "merriam-webster1"/> Here, too, the sense was pejorative, with Irish novelist ] referring to "the Bureaucratie, or office tyranny, by which Ireland has so long been governed."<ref name = "lady morgan">{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=nCc1AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA35&lpg=PA35|title=Florence Macarthy|first= Sydney|last=Lady Morgan|accessdate= 2014-11-18|page=35|year=1818}}</ref> By the mid-19th century, the word was being used in a more neutral sense, referring to a system of public administration in which offices were held by unelected career officials. In this sense "bureaucracy" was seen as a distinct form of management, often subservient to a monarchy.<ref name= "google1">{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=KtFI15WCr_8C&lpg=PP1&pg=PA3 |title=Bureaucracy|first=David|last= Beetham|publisher= Google |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" /> | |||
Since the ], the powers of the federal government have generally expanded greatly, although there have been periods since that time of legislative branch dominance (e.g., the decades immediately following the Civil War) or when ] proponents have succeeded in limiting federal power through legislative action, executive prerogative or by constitutional interpretation by the courts.<ref>'The Influence of State Politics in Expanding Federal Power,' Henry Jones Ford, 'Proceedings of the American Political Science Association, Vol. 5, Fifth Annual Meeting (1908)' Retrieved on March 17, 2010</ref><ref>{{dead link|date=March 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> | |||
==History== | |||
One of the theoretical pillars of the U.S. Constitution is the idea of "]" among the powers and responsibilities of the three branches of American government: the executive, the legislative, and the judiciary. For example, while the legislative branch (]) has the power to create law, the executive branch under the ] can ] any legislation—an act which, in turn, can be overridden by Congress.<ref>'The Legislative Branch' {{cite web |url=http://www.whitehouse.gov/our-government/legislative-branch |title=Archived copy |accessdate=2013-01-20 |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130120152201/http://www.whitehouse.gov/our-government/legislative-branch |archivedate=January 20, 2013 |df=mdy-all }} Retrieved on January 20, 2013</ref> The president nominates judges to the nation's highest judiciary authority, the ], but those nominees must be approved by Congress. The Supreme Court, in turn, ] unconstitutional laws passed by the Congress. These and other examples are examined in more detail in the text below. | |||
===Ancient=== | |||
==Legislative branch== <!--linked from ]--> | |||
]s to receive a position in the bureaucracy of ].]] | |||
{{Main|United States Congress}} | |||
Although the term "bureaucracy" was not coined until the mid 18th century, organized and consistent administrative systems are much older. The development of writing (ca. 3500 BC) 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 ]s used ]s to administer the harvest and allocate its spoils.<ref name="Scribes">{{cite book|title=Civilizations of the Ancient Near East|editor=Jack M. Sasson|year=1995|publisher=Macmillan Library Reference|chapter=The Scribes and Scholars of Ancient Mesopotamia|author=Laurie E. Pearce|pages=2265–2278|url=https://www.academia.edu/562267/The_scribes_and_scholars_of_ancient_Mesopotamia|accessdate=12 March 2014}}</ref> ] also had a hereditary class of scribes that administered the ] bureaucracy.<ref name="Scribal training">{{cite journal|title=Scribal Training in Ancient Egypt|journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society|volume=92|number=2|year=1972|author=Ronald J. Williams|jstor=600648}}</ref> | |||
] | |||
The ] 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 of 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): pp. 539–42). See also: Barnes, ''Constantine and Eusebius'', 9; Cascio, "The New State of Diocletian and Constantine" (CAH), 179; Rees, ''Diocletian and the Tetrarchy'', pp. 24–27.</ref> The early Christian author ] claimed that Diocletian's reforms led to widespread economic stagnation, since "the provinces were divided into minute portions, and many presidents and a multitude of inferior officers lay heavy on each territory."<ref name="Lactantius">{{cite book|author=Lactantius|author-link=Lactantius|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 ] developed a notoriously ], and in time the term "Byzantine" came to refer to any complex bureaucratic structure.<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> | |||
The ] is the legislative branch of the federal government. It is ], comprising the ] and the ]. | |||
In ], the ] established a complicated bureaucracy based on the teachings of ], who emphasized the importance of ] in a family, relationships, and politics.<ref name="Confucius">{{cite book|author=Riegel, Jeffrey|chapter=Confucius|title=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy|edition=Spring 2012|editor=Edward N. Zalta|url=http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2012/entries/confucius}}</ref> With each subsequent Dynasty, the bureaucracy evolved. During the ], the bureaucracy became ]. Following the ] reforms, ] were held to determine who was qualified to hold a given position.<ref name="McKnight1983">{{cite book|last=McKnight|first=Brian E.|title=Village and Bureaucracy in Southern Sung China|url=https://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 imperial examination system lasted until 1905, six years before the collapse of the ], marking the end of China's traditional bureaucratic system.{{citation needed|date=August 2015}} | |||
=== Makeup of Congress === | |||
===Modern=== | |||
==== House of Representatives ==== | |||
====The United Kingdom==== | |||
] | |||
] developed a sophisticated bureaucracy. Pictured, the ].]] | |||
The House currently consists of 435 voting members, each of whom represents a ]. The number of representatives each state has in the House is based on each ] as determined in the most recent ]. All 435 representatives serve a two-year term. Each state receives a minimum of one representative in the House. In order to be elected as a representative, an individual must be at least 25 years of age, must have been a ] for at least seven years, and must live in the state that he or she represents. There is no limit on the number of terms a representative may serve. In addition to the 435 voting members, there are 6 non-voting members, consisting of 5 delegates and one ]. There is one delegate each from the ], ], the ], ], and the ], and the ] from ].<ref>U.S. House Official Website {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080828203008/http://www.house.gov/house/MemberWWW_by_State.shtml |date=August 28, 2008 }} Retrieved on August 17, 2008</ref> | |||
A modern form of bureaucracy evolved in the expanding ] in the United Kingdom during the 18th century.{{citation needed|date=July 2014}}{{original research inline|date=June 2016}} The relative efficiency and professionalism in this state-run authority allowed the government to impose a very large ] on the population and raise great sums of money for ]. According to ], the bureaucracy was based on "recruitment by examination, training, promotion on merit, regular salaries and pensions, and standardized procedures".<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xNwfbPVMb_wC&source=gbs_navlinks_s|title=The Cash Nexus: Money and Politics in Modern History, 1700-2000|author=Niall Ferguson|year=2013|publisher=Penguin UK|accessdate=2013-02-07}}</ref> The system was subject to a strict hierarchy and emphasis was placed on technical and efficient methods for tax collection.{{citation needed|date=August 2015}} | |||
Instead of the inefficient and often corrupt system of ] that prevailed in ] states such as France, the ] was able to exert control over the entire system of tax revenue and government expenditure.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.lse.ac.uk/economicHistory/workingPapers/2012/WP167.pdf|title=3 Public finance in China and Britain in the long eighteenth century|accessdate=2012-12-17}}</ref> By the late 18th century, the ratio of fiscal bureaucracy to population in Britain was approximately 1 in 1300, almost four times larger than the second most heavily bureaucratized nation, France.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IPxlQgAACAAJ&dq=inauthor:%22Linda+Weiss%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Kc8gUqOwGKay7AbL7IFA&ved=0CE8Q6AEwAw|title=States and Economic Development: A Comparative Historical Analysis|author1=Linda Weiss |author2=John Hobson |year=1995|publisher=Wiley|accessdate=2013-02-07}}</ref> Thomas Taylor Meadows, Britain's consul in ], argued in his ''Desultory Notes on the Government and People of China'' (1847) that "the long duration of the Chinese empire is solely and altogether owing to the good government which consists in the advancement of men of talent and merit only," and that the British must reform their civil service by making the institution ].<ref name="Bodde"/> Influenced by the ancient Chinese ], the ] of 1854 recommended that recruitment should be on the basis of merit determined through competitive examination, candidates should have a solid general education to enable inter-departmental transfers, and promotion should be through achievement rather than "preferment, patronage, or purchase".<ref> {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141222072511/http://www.civilservant.org.uk/northcotetrevelyan.pdf |date=22 December 2014 }}</ref><ref name="Bodde">{{cite web|last=Bodde|first=Derke|title=China: A Teaching Workbook|url=http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/song/readings/inventions_ideas.htm|publisher=Columbia University}}</ref> This led to implementation of ] as a systematic, meritocratic civil service bureaucracy.<ref>{{cite news|last=Walker|first=David|title=Fair game|publisher=The Guardian|date=2003-07-09|url=https://www.theguardian.com/society/2003/jul/09/publicsector.guardiansocietysupplement|accessdate =2003-07-09|location=London, UK}}</ref> | |||
==== Senate ==== | |||
In contrast, the Senate is made up of two senators from each state, regardless of population. There are currently 100 senators (2 from each of the 50 states), who each serve six-year terms. Approximately one-third of the Senate stands for election every two years. | |||
==== |
====France==== | ||
Like the British, the development of French bureaucracy was influenced by the Chinese system. Under ], the old nobility had neither power nor political influence, their only privilege being exemption from taxes. The dissatisfied noblemen complained about this "unnatural" state of affairs, and discovered similarities between ] and bureaucratic ].<ref name="Jacoby1973">{{cite book|author=Henry Jacoby|title=The Bureaucratization of the World|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zGwVaki8uXIC&pg=PA43|accessdate=September 16, 2013|date=January 1, 1973|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-02083-2|page=43}}</ref> With the translation of ] texts during the ], the concept of a ] reached intellectuals in the West, who saw it as an alternative to the traditional '']'' of Europe.<ref name="EE">Schwarz (1996), p. 229</ref> ] claimed that the Chinese had "perfected moral science" and ] advocated an economic and political system modeled after that of the Chinese. | |||
The House and Senate each have particular exclusive powers. For example, the Senate must approve (give "]" to) many important presidential appointments, including cabinet officers, ] (including nominees to the Supreme Court), department secretaries (heads of federal executive branch departments), U.S. military and naval officers, and ambassadors to foreign countries. All legislative bills for raising revenue must originate in the House of Representatives. The approval of both chambers is required to pass all legislation, which then may only become law by being signed by the president (or, if the president ] the bill, both houses of Congress then re-pass the bill, but by a ] of each chamber, in which case the bill becomes law without the president's signature). The powers of Congress are limited to those enumerated in the Constitution; all other powers are reserved to the states and the people. The Constitution also includes the "]", which grants Congress the power to "make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers". Members of the House and Senate are elected by ] voting in every state except ] and ], which have ]. | |||
Napoleonic France adopted this meritocracy system <ref name="EE"/> and soon saw a rapid and dramatic expansion of government, accompanied by the rise of the French civil service and its complex systems of bureaucracy. This phenomenon became known as "bureaumania". 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, that led to even further growth of the bureaucracy.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3iSkH1Qf6xsC&pg=PA142&lpg=PA142|title=Handbook of Administrative History - Paper - J.C.N. Raadschelders|publisher=Books.google.com|accessdate=2013-05-26}}</ref> | |||
==== Impeachment of federal officers ==== | |||
====Other industrialized nations==== | |||
{{Main|Impeachment in the United States}} | |||
By the mid-19th century, bureaucratic forms of administration were firmly in place across the industrialized world. Thinkers like ] and ] began to theorize about the economic functions and power-structures of bureaucracy in contemporary life. ] 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, with the public sector employing over 5% of the workforce in many Western countries.{{citation needed|date=March 2014}} Within capitalist systems, informal bureaucratic structures began to appear in the form of corporate power hierarchies, as detailed in mid-century works like '']'' and '']''. Meanwhile, in the ] and ] nations, a powerful class of bureaucratic administrators termed '']'' governed nearly all aspects of public life.<ref name="Voslensky">{{Cite book|author=Michael Voslensky|author-link=Michael Voslensky|year=1984|title=Nomenklatura: The Soviet Ruling Class|publisher=Doubleday|edition=1st|isbn=0-385-17657-0}}</ref> | |||
Congress has the power to remove the president, federal judges, and other federal officers from office. The House of Representatives and Senate have separate roles in this process. The House must first vote to "impeach" the official. Then, a trial is held in the Senate to decide whether the official should be removed from office. Although two presidents have been impeached by the House of Representatives (] and ]), neither of them was removed following trial in the Senate. | |||
The 1980s brought a backlash against perceptions of "big government" and the associated bureaucracy. Politicians like ] and ] gained power by promising to eliminate government regulatory bureaucracies, which they saw as overbearing, and return economic production to a more purely capitalistic mode, which they saw as more efficient.<ref name="ThatcherBBC">{{cite web|title=Viewpoints: How did Margaret Thatcher change Britain?|website=BBC News|date=13 April 2013|url=http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-22076774}}</ref><ref name="Speech">{{cite speech|title=A Time For Choosing|author=Ronald Reagan|date=27 October 1964|url=http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/reference/timechoosing.html|website=Ronald Reagan Presidential Library}}</ref> In the business world, managers like ] gained fortune and renown by eliminating bureaucratic structures inside corporations.<ref name="Welch">{{cite web|url=http://www.businessweek.com/1996/44/b34991.htm |title=Jack Welch's Encore |publisher=Businessweek.com |date=14 June 1997 |accessdate=2010-07-12 |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100101031942/http://www.businessweek.com/1996/44/b34991.htm |archivedate=1 January 2010 }}</ref> Still, in the modern world, most organized institutions rely on bureaucratic systems to manage information, process records, and administer complex systems, although the decline of paperwork and the widespread use of electronic databases is transforming the way bureaucracies function.<ref name="Modernity">{{cite book|url=http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780199563654.do|title=Managing Modernity: Beyond Bureaucracy?|editor1=Stewart R. Clegg |editor2=Martin Harris |editor3=Harro Höpfl |year=2011|publisher=Oxford University Press}}</ref> | |||
==== Congressional procedures ==== | |||
Article I, Section 2, paragraph 2 of the U.S. Constitution gives each chamber the power to "determine the rules of its proceedings". From this provision were created ], which do the work of drafting legislation and conducting congressional investigations into national matters. The ] (2003–2005) had 19 standing committees in the House and 17 in the Senate, plus 4 joint permanent committees with members from both houses overseeing the ], printing, taxation, and the economy. In addition, each house may name special, or select, committees to study specific problems. Today, much of the congressional workload is borne by the subcommittees, of which there are around 150. | |||
==Theories== | |||
=== Powers of Congress === | |||
{{Main|Article One of the United States Constitution}} | |||
] is the ] for Congress.]] | |||
The Constitution grants numerous powers to Congress. Enumerated in Article I, Section 8, these include the powers to levy and collect ]es; to coin money and regulate its value; provide for punishment for counterfeiting; establish post offices and roads, issue patents, create federal courts inferior to the ], combat ] and ], declare ], raise and support ], provide and maintain a ], make rules for the regulation of land and naval forces, provide for, arm and discipline the ], exercise exclusive legislation in the ], and to make laws necessary to properly execute powers. Over the two centuries since the United States was formed, many disputes have arisen over the limits on the powers of the federal government. These disputes have often been the subject of lawsuits that have ultimately been decided by the ]. | |||
===Karl Marx=== | |||
==== Congressional oversight ==== | |||
] theorized about the role and function of bureaucracy in his '']'', published in 1843. In '']'', ] had supported the role of specialized officials in ], although he never used the term "bureaucracy" himself. Marx, by contrast, was opposed to bureaucracy. Marx posited that while ] and government bureaucracy seem to operate in opposition, in actuality they mutually rely 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"/> | |||
{{Main|Congressional oversight}} | |||
Congressional oversight is intended to prevent waste and fraud, protect ] and individual rights, ensure executive compliance with the law, gather information for making laws and educating the public, and evaluate executive performance.<ref name="Congressional oversight">{{cite web| last = Kaiser| first = Frederick M.| authorlink = | coauthors = | title = Congressional Oversight| work = | publisher = Congressional Research Service | date = January 3, 2006| url = https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/97-936.pdf| format = | doi = | accessdate = July 30, 2008}}</ref> | |||
===John Stuart Mill=== | |||
It applies to cabinet departments, executive agencies, regulatory commissions, and the presidency. | |||
Writing in the early 1860s, political scientist ] theorized that successful monarchies were essentially bureaucracies, and found evidence of their existence in ], the ], and the regimes of ]. 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 believed this 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--> | |||
Congress's oversight function takes many forms: | |||
{{Quote box | |||
* Committee inquiries and ] | |||
| quote = Bureaucratic administration means fundamentally domination through knowledge | |||
* Formal consultations with and reports from the ] | |||
|Bureaucratic administration means fundamentally domination through knowledge|–'''Max Weber'''<ref name="Bureaucratic"/>}} | |||
* Senate advice and consent for presidential nominations and for treaties | |||
The German sociologist ] was the first to formally study bureaucracy and his works led to the popularization of this term.<ref name="BuSach"/> In his 1922 essay ''Bureaucracy'',,<ref>Weber, 2015, pp. 73–127 in Weber's Rationalism and Modern Society, edited and translated by Tony Waters and Dagmar Waters, New York: Palgrave MacMillan</ref> published in his magnum opus '']'', Weber described many ] forms of ], government, and business. His ideal-typical bureaucracy, whether public or private, is characterized by: | |||
* House ] proceedings and subsequent Senate trials | |||
* hierarchical organization | |||
* House and Senate proceedings under the ] in the event that the president becomes disabled or the office of the ] falls vacant | |||
* formal lines of authority (chain of command) | |||
* Informal meetings between legislators and executive officials | |||
* a fixed area of activity | |||
* Congressional membership: each state is allocated a number of seats based on its representation (or ostensible representation, in the case of D.C.) in the House of Representatives. Each state is allocated two senators regardless of its population. As of January 2010, the District of Columbia elects a non-voting representative to the House of Representatives along with American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Northern Mariana Islands. | |||
* rigid division of labor | |||
* regular and continuous execution of assigned tasks | |||
* all decisions and powers specified and restricted by regulations | |||
* officials with expert training in their fields | |||
* career advancement dependent on technical qualifications | |||
* qualifications evaluated by organizational rules, not individuals<ref name="Bureaucratic"/><ref name="AllanAllan2005-172-176"/><ref>Weber 2015, p. 76, in Weber's Rationalism and Modern Society: New Translations on Politics, Bureaucracy, and Social Stratification, edited and translated by Tony Waters and Dagmar Waters. New York: Palgrave Macmillan<!-- ISSN/ISBN needed --></ref> | |||
Weber listed several preconditions for the ] of bureaucracy, including an increase in the amount of space and population being administered, an increase in the 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, and ] and rationalization of culture results in demands for ].<ref name="AllanAllan2005-172-176"/> | |||
==Executive branch== <!--linked from ] and ]--> | |||
{{See also|Article Two of the United States Constitution|List of United States federal executive orders}} | |||
Although he was not necessarily an admirer of bureaucracy, Weber saw bureaucratization as the most efficient and rational way of organizing human activity and therefore as the key to ], indispensable to the modern world.<ref>, books.google.ca; accessed 30 August 2015.</ref> Furthermore, he saw it as the key process in the ongoing ] of ].<ref name="Bureaucratic"/><ref name="Ritzer2009-38-42"/> Weber also saw bureaucracy, however, as a threat to individual freedoms, 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"/> Weber's critical study of the bureaucratization of society became one of the most enduring parts of his work.<ref name="Bureaucratic"/><ref name="Ritzer2009-38-42"/> Many aspects of modern public administration are based on his work, and a classic, hierarchically organized ] of the Continental type is called "Weberian civil service".<ref name="Hooghe2001"/> | |||
The executive power in the federal government is vested in the President of the United States,<ref name="ArtII wikisource">]</ref> although power is often delegated to the ] members and other officials.<ref>{{UnitedStatesCode|3|301|303}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |first=Obama |last=Barack |authorlink=Barack Obama |title=Delegation of Certain Authority Under the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008 |url=http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Presidential-Memorandum-for-the-Secretary-of-Defense/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090430020801/http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Presidential-Memorandum-for-the-Secretary-of-Defense/|publisher=] |date=April 27, 2009 |archivedate=2009-04-30|dead-url=yes |accessdate=July 1, 2009 |quote=}}</ref> The ] and ] are elected as ] by the ], for which each ], as well as the ], is allocated a number of seats based on its representation (or ], in the case of D.C.) in both houses of Congress.<ref name="ArtII wikisource" /><ref>]</ref> The president is limited to a maximum of two four-year terms.<ref>]</ref> If the president has already served two years or more of a term to which some other person was elected, he or she may only serve one more additional four-year term.<ref name="ArtII wikisource" /> | |||
=== |
===Woodrow Wilson=== | ||
Writing as an academic while a professor at ], ]'s essay "]"<ref>Woodrow Wilson, "The Study of Administration", ''Political Science Quarterly'', July 1887</ref> argued for bureaucracy as a professional cadre, devoid of allegiance to fleeting politics. 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." | |||
{{Main|President of the United States}} | |||
] | |||
The executive branch consists of the president and those to whom the president's powers are delegated. The president is both the ] and ], as well as the military ] and chief ]. The president, according to the Constitution, must "take care that the laws be faithfully executed", and "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution". The president presides over the executive branch of the federal government, an organization numbering about 5 million people, including 1 million active-duty military personnel and 600,000 ] employees. | |||
Wilson did not advocate a replacement of rule by the governed, he simply advised that, "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. | |||
The president may sign legislation passed by Congress into law or may ] it, preventing it from becoming law unless two-thirds of both houses of Congress vote to override the veto. The president may unilaterally sign ] with foreign nations. However, ] of international treaties requires a two-thirds majority vote in the Senate. The president may be ] by a majority in the House and removed from office by a two-thirds majority in the Senate for "], ], or other ]". The president may not ] or call ] but does have the power to ] or release criminals convicted of offenses against the federal government (except in cases of impeachment), enact ], and (with the consent of the Senate) appoint Supreme Court justices and federal judges. | |||
=== |
===Ludwig von Mises=== | ||
In his 1944 work '']'', the Austrian economist ] compared bureaucratic management to profit management. Profit management, he argued, is the most effective method of organization when the services rendered may be checked by economic calculation of profit and loss. When, however, the service in question can not be subjected to economic calculation, bureaucratic management is necessary. He did not oppose universally bureaucratic management; on the contrary, he argued that bureaucracy is an indispensable method for social organization, for it is the only method by which the law can be made supreme, and is the protector of the individual against despotic arbitrariness. Using the example of the Catholic Church, he pointed out that bureaucracy is only appropriate for an organization whose code of conduct is not subject to change. He then went on to argue that complaints about bureaucratization usually refer not to the criticism of the bureaucratic methods themselves, but to "the intrusion of bureaucracy into all spheres of human life." 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. According to him, "What must be realized is only that the strait jacket <!----> of bureaucratic organization paralyzes the individual's initiative, while within the capitalist market society an innovator still has a chance to succeed. The former makes for stagnation and preservation of inveterate methods, the latter makes for progress and improvement."<ref name="Mises"/> | |||
{{Main|Vice President of the United States}} | |||
] | |||
The vice president is the second-highest official in rank of the federal government. The office of the vice president's duties and powers are established in the legislative branch of the federal government under Article 1, Section 3, Clauses 4 and 5 as the ]; this means that he or she is the head of the Senate. In that capacity, the vice president is allowed to vote in the Senate, but only when necessary to ]. Pursuant to the ], the vice president presides over the ] when it convenes to count the vote of the ]. As first in the ], the vice president's duties and powers move to the executive branch when becoming president upon the death, resignation, or removal of the president, which has happened ] in U.S. history. Lastly, in the case of a ] succession event, the vice president would become acting president, assuming all of the powers and duties of president, except being designated as president. Accordingly, by circumstances, the Constitution designates the vice president as routinely in the legislative branch, or succeeding to the executive branch as president, or possibly being in both as acting president pursuant to the ]. Because of circumstances, the overlapping nature of the duties and powers attributed to the office, the title of the office and other matters, such has generated a spirited scholarly dispute regarding attaching an exclusive branch designation to the office of vice president.<ref name=Goldstein>{{cite journal|last=Goldstein|first=Joel K.|title=The New Constitutional Vice Presidency|journal=Wake Forest Law Review|volume=30|issue=505|publisher=Wake Forest Law Review Association, Inc.|url=|location=Winston Salem, NC|year=1995}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Reynolds|first=Glenn Harlan|title=Is Dick Cheney Unconstitutional?|journal=Northwestern University Law Review Colloquy|volume=102|issue=110|publisher=Northwestern University School of Law|url=|location=Chicago|year=2007}}</ref> | |||
===Robert K. Merton=== | |||
=== Cabinet, executive departments, and agencies === | |||
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 noted the dysfunctional aspects of bureaucracy, which he attributed to a "trained incapacity" resulting from "over conformity". He believed that bureaucrats are more likely to defend their own entrenched interests than to act to benefit the organization as a whole but that pride in their craft makes them resistant to changes in established routines. Merton stated that bureaucrats emphasize formality over interpersonal relationships, and have been trained to ignore the special circumstances of particular cases, causing them to come across as "arrogant" and "haughty".<ref name="Merton"/> | |||
{{Main|Cabinet of the United States|United States federal executive departments|List of federal agencies in the United States}} | |||
The day-to-day enforcement and administration of federal laws is in the hands of the various ], created by Congress to deal with specific areas of national and international affairs. The heads of the 15 departments, chosen by the president and approved with the "advice and consent" of the U.S. Senate, form a council of advisers generally known as the president's "Cabinet". Once confirmed, these "cabinet officers" serve at the pleasure of the president. In addition to departments, a number of staff organizations are grouped into the ]. These include the ] staff, the ], the ], the ], the ], the ], the ], and the ]. The employees in these United States government agencies are called ]. | |||
=== Elliott Jaques === | |||
There are also ] such as the ] (USPS), the ] (NASA), the ] (CIA), the ] (EPA), and the ] (USAID). In addition, there are ]s such as the ] and the ]. | |||
In his book “A General Theory of Bureaucracy”, first published in 1976, ] describes the discovery of a universal and uniform underlying structure of managerial or work levels in the bureaucratic hierarchy for any type of employment systems.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/55877281|title=Constructing the infrastructure for the knowledge economy : methods and tools, theory and structure|last=|first=|date=2004|publisher=Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers|others=Linger, Henry,|year=|isbn=0306485540|location=New York|pages=104|oclc=55877281}}</ref> | |||
] argues and presents evidence that for the bureaucracy to provide a valuable contribution to the open society some of the following conditions must be met: | |||
== Judicial branch == | |||
* Number of levels in a bureaucracy hierarchy must match the complexity level of the employment system for which the bureaucratic hierarchy is created (Elliott Jaques identified maximum 8 levels of complexity for bureaucratic hierarchies). | |||
{{Main|Federal judiciary of the United States|United States federal courts}} | |||
* Roles within a bureaucratic hierarchy differ in the level of work complexity. | |||
{{See also|Article Three of the United States Constitution}} | |||
* The level of work complexity in the roles must be matched with the level of human capability of the role holders (Elliott Jaques identified maximum 8 Levels of human capability). | |||
* The level of work complexity in any managerial role within a bureaucratic hierarchy must be one level higher than the level of work complexity of the subordinate roles. | |||
* Any managerial role in a bureaucratic hierarchy must have full managerial accountabilities and authorities (veto selection to the team, decide task types and specific task assignments, decide personal effectiveness and recognition, decide initiation of removal from the team within due process). | |||
* Lateral working accountabilities and authorities must be defined for all the roles in the hierarchy (7 types of lateral working accountabilities and authorities: collateral, advisory, service-getting and -giving, coordinative, monitoring, auditing, prescribing).<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/2089721|title=A general theory of bureaucracy|last=Elliott.|first=Jaques,|date=1976|publisher=Heinemann|isbn=0435824783|location=London|oclc=2089721}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.psychoanalysis-and-therapy.com/human_nature/free-associations/kirsnerjaques.html|title=Psychoanalysis Psychotherapy|website=www.psychoanalysis-and-therapy.com|access-date=2018-03-01}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://hbr.org/1990/01/in-praise-of-hierarchy|title=In Praise of Hierarchy|date=1990-01-01|work=Harvard Business Review|access-date=2018-03-01}}</ref> | |||
The definition of effective bureaucratic hierarchy by ] is of importance not only to sociology but to social psychology, social anthropology, economics, politics, and social philosophy. They also have a practical application in business and administrative studies. | |||
==See also== | |||
The Judiciary explains and applies the laws. This branch does this by hearing and eventually making decisions on various legal cases. | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
==References== | |||
=== Overview of the federal judiciary === | |||
{{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=172–76}}</ref> | |||
Article III section I of the Constitution establishes the ] and authorizes the United States Congress to establish inferior courts as their need shall arise. Section I also establishes a lifetime tenure for all federal judges and states that their compensation may not be diminished during their time in office. Article II section II establishes that all federal judges are to be appointed by the president and confirmed by the ]. | |||
<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=https://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> | |||
The ] subdivided the nation jurisdictionally into ] and created federal courts for each district. The three tiered structure of this act established the basic structure of the national judiciary: the Supreme Court, 13 courts of appeals, 94 district courts, and two courts of special jurisdiction. Congress retains the power to re-organize or even abolish federal courts lower than the Supreme Court. | |||
<ref name="Bureaucratic">{{cite book|author1=Richard Swedberg|author2=Ola Agevall|title=The Max Weber dictionary: key words and central concepts|url=https://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> | |||
The U.S. Supreme Court adjudicates "]"—matters pertaining to the federal government, disputes between states, and interpretation of the United States Constitution, and, in general, can declare legislation or executive action made at any level of the government as ], nullifying the law and creating ] for future law and decisions. The United States Constitution does not specifically mention the power of ] (the power to declare a law unconstitutional). The power of judicial review was asserted by ] in the landmark Supreme Court Case '']'' (1803). There have been instances in the past where such declarations have been ignored by the other two branches. Below the U.S. Supreme Court are the ], and below them in turn are the ], which are the general trial courts for federal law, and for certain controversies between litigants who are not deemed citizens of the same state ("]"). | |||
<ref name = "Mises">{{cite book|author=Ludwig von Mises|author-link=Ludwig von Mises|url=https://mises.org/etexts/mises/bureaucracy.asp|accessdate=12 October 2012|title=Bureaucracy|year=1944}}</ref> | |||
There are three levels of federal courts with ''general jurisdiction'', meaning that these courts handle criminal cases and civil lawsuits between individuals. Other courts, such as the ] and the ], are specialized courts handling only certain kinds of cases ("]"). The Bankruptcy Courts are "under" the supervision of the district courts, and, as such, are not considered part of the "]" judiciary and also as such their judges do not have lifetime tenure, nor are they Constitutionally exempt from diminution of their remuneration.<ref>]</ref> Also the Tax Court is not an Article III court (but is, instead an "Article I Court").<ref>]</ref> | |||
<ref name="Mill">{{cite book|author=John Stuart Mill|author-link=John Stuart Mill|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> | |||
The district courts are the trial courts wherein cases that are considered under the Judicial Code (Title 28, United States Code) consistent with the jurisdictional precepts of "]" and "diversity jurisdiction" and "]" can be filed and decided. The district courts can also hear cases under "]", wherein a case brought in State court meets the requirements for diversity jurisdiction, and one party litigant chooses to "remove" the case from state court to federal court. | |||
<ref name="GRitzer">], ''Enchanting a Disenchanted World: Revolutionizing the Means of Consumption'', Pine Forge Press, 2004; {{ISBN|0-7619-8819-X}}, </ref> | |||
The United States Courts of Appeals are appellate courts that hear appeals of cases decided by the district courts, and some direct appeals from administrative agencies, and some interlocutory appeals. The U.S. Supreme Court hears appeals from the decisions of the courts of appeals or state supreme courts, and in addition has ] over a few cases. | |||
<ref name="Hooghe2001">{{cite book|author=Liesbet Hooghe|title=The European Commission and the integration of Europe: images of governance|url=https://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> | |||
The judicial power extends to cases arising under the Constitution, an ]; a U.S. ]; cases affecting ]s, ] and ] of foreign countries in the U.S.; cases and controversies to which the federal government is a party; controversies between states (or their citizens) and foreign nations (or their citizens or subjects); and bankruptcy cases (collectively "federal-question jurisdiction"). The ] removed from federal jurisdiction cases in which citizens of one state were the plaintiffs and the government of another state was the defendant. It did not disturb federal jurisdiction in cases in which a state government is a plaintiff and a citizen of another state the defendant. | |||
<ref name="Merton">{{cite book|author=Robert K. Merton|author-link=Robert K. Merton|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> | |||
The power of the federal courts extends both to civil actions for damages and other redress, and to criminal cases arising under federal law. The interplay of the Supremacy Clause and Article III has resulted in a complex set of relationships between state and federal courts. Federal courts can sometimes hear cases arising under state law pursuant to ], state courts can decide certain matters involving federal law, and a handful of federal claims are primarily reserved by federal statute to the state courts (for example, those arising from the ]). Both court systems thus can be said to have ] in some areas and ] in others. | |||
<ref name = "Marx1843">{{cite book|author=Karl Marx|author-link=Karl Marx|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> | |||
The U.S. Constitution safeguards judicial independence by providing that federal judges shall hold office "during good behavior"; in practice, this usually means they serve until they die, retire, or resign. A judge who commits an offense while in office may be ] in the same way as the president or other officials of the federal government. U.S. judges are appointed by the president, subject to confirmation by the Senate. Another Constitutional provision prohibits Congress from reducing the pay of any Article III judge (Congress is able to set a lower salary for all future judges that take office after the reduction, but may not decrease the rate of pay for judges already in office). | |||
<ref name="Ritzer2009-38-42">{{cite book|author=George Ritzer|title=Contemporary Sociological Theory and Its Classical Roots: The Basics|url=https://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>}} | |||
=== Relationships between state and federal courts === | |||
Separate from, but not entirely independent of, this federal court system are the court systems of each state, each dealing with, in addition to federal law when not deemed preempted, a state's own laws, and having its own court rules and procedures. Although state governments and the federal government are legally ''dual sovereigns'', the Supreme Court of the United States is in many cases the appellate court from the State Supreme Courts (e.g., absent the Court countenancing the applicability of the '']''). The ] are by this doctrine the final authority on the interpretation of the applicable state's laws and Constitution. Many state constitution provisions are equal in breadth to those of the U.S. Constitution, but are considered "parallel" (thus, where, for example, the right to privacy pursuant to a state constitution is broader than the federal right to privacy, and the asserted ground is explicitly held to be "independent", the question can be finally decided in a State Supreme Court—the U.S. Supreme Court will decline to take jurisdiction). | |||
==Further reading== | |||
A State Supreme Court, other than of its own accord, is bound ''only'' by the U.S. Supreme Court's interpretation of federal law, but is ''not'' bound by interpretation of federal law by the federal court of appeals for the federal circuit in which the state is included, or even the federal district courts located in the state, a result of the ''dual sovereigns'' concept. Conversely, a federal district court hearing a matter involving only a question of state law (usually through ]) must apply the substantive law of the state in which the court sits, a result of the application of the '']''; however, at the same time, the case is heard under the ], the ] and the ] instead of state procedural rules (that is, the application of the ''Erie Doctrine'' only extends to a requirement that a federal court asserting diversity jurisdiction apply ''substantive'' state law, but not ''procedural'' state law, which may be different). Together, the laws of the federal and state governments form ]. | |||
== Elections and voting == | |||
{{Main|Elections in the United States}} | |||
], 1862.]] | |||
], commonly known as the ability to vote, has changed significantly over time. In the early years of the United States, voting was considered a matter for state governments, and was commonly restricted to white men who owned land. Direct elections were mostly held only for the U.S. House of Representatives and state legislatures, although what specific bodies were elected by the electorate varied from state to state. Under this original system, both ] representing each state in the U.S. Senate were chosen by a majority vote of the state legislature. Since the ratification of the ] in 1913, members of both houses of Congress have been directly elected. Today, U.S. citizens have almost ] under equal protection of the laws<ref>]</ref> from the age of 18,<ref>]</ref> regardless of race,<ref>]</ref> gender,<ref>]</ref> or wealth.<ref>]</ref> The only significant exception to this is the ], and in some states former felons as well. | |||
Under the U.S. Constitution, the national representation of U.S. territories and the federal district of ] in Congress is ]: while residents of the District of Columbia are subject to federal laws and federal taxes, their only congressional representative is a ]; however, they have been allowed to participate in presidential elections since March 29, 1961.<ref>]</ref> Residents of U.S. territories have varying rights; for example, only some residents of ] pay federal income taxes (though all residents must pay all other federal taxes, including import/export taxes, federal commodity taxes and federal ]es, including ] and ]). All federal laws that are "not locally inapplicable" are automatically the law of the land in Puerto Rico but their current representation in the ] is in the form of a ], a nonvoting delegate.<ref>Contrary to common misconception, residents of Puerto Rico do pay U.S. federal taxes: customs taxes (which are subsequently returned to the Puerto Rico Treasury) (See {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120610225702/http://www.doi.gov/oia/Islandpages/prpage.htm |date=June 10, 2012 }}, import/export taxes (See {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100401034052/http://stanford.wellsphere.com/healthcare-industry-policy-article/puerto-rico/267827 |date=April 1, 2010 }}, federal commodity taxes (See , social security taxes (See Residents pay federal ]es, such as ] (See and ] (See , as well as Commonwealth of Puerto Rico income taxes (See and {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110429222842/http://www.htrcpa.com/businessinpr1.html |date=April 29, 2011 }} All federal employees (See {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100210124900/http://www.heritage.org/Research/Taxes/wm2338.cfm |date=February 10, 2010 }}, those who do business with the federal government (See {{webarchive|url=https://www.webcitation.org/5mp67ZoSs?url=http://www.mcvpr.com/CM/CurrentEvents/CEOsummitarticle.pdf |date=January 16, 2010 }}, Puerto Rico-based corporations that intend to send funds to the U.S. (See , and some others (For example, Puerto Rican residents that are members of the U.S. military, See and Puerto Rico residents who earned income from sources outside Puerto Rico, See also pay federal income taxes. In addition, because the cutoff point for income taxation is lower than that of the U.S. IRS code, and because the per-capita income in Puerto Rico is much lower than the average per-capita income on the mainland, more Puerto Rico residents pay income taxes to the local taxation authority than if the IRS code were applied to the island. This occurs because "the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico government has a wider set of responsibilities than do U.S. State and local governments" (See As residents of Puerto Rico pay into Social Security, Puerto Ricans are eligible for Social Security benefits upon retirement, but are excluded from the ] (SSI) (Commonwealth of Puerto Rico residents, unlike residents of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and residents of the 50 States, do not receive the SSI. See , and the island actually receives less than 15% of the ] funding it would normally receive if it were a U.S. state. However, Medicare providers receive less-than-full state-like reimbursements for services rendered to beneficiaries in Puerto Rico, even though the latter paid fully into the system (See {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110511054048/http://www.prfaa.com/news/?p=252 |date=May 11, 2011 }} It has also been estimated (See that, because the population of the island is greater than that of 50% of the states, if it were a state, Puerto Rico would have six to eight seats in the House, in addition to the two seats in the Senate.(See {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090610210536/http://www.crf-usa.org/bill-of-rights-in-action/bria-17-4-c.html |date=June 10, 2009 }} and ]". These are the steps to follow: > Committee Reports > 110 > drop down "Word/Phrase" and pick "Report Number" > type "597" next to Report Number. This will provide the document "House Report 110-597 – ]", then from the Table of Contents choose "Background and need for legislation".]). Another misconception is that the import/export taxes collected by the U.S. on products manufactured in Puerto Rico are all returned to the Puerto Rico Treasury. This is not the case. Such import/export taxes are returned ''only'' for rum products, and even then the US Treasury keeps a portion of those taxes (See the "House Report 110-597 – ]" mentioned above.)</ref> | |||
== State, tribal, and local governments == | |||
{{Main|State governments of the United States|Tribal sovereignty in the United States|Local government in the United States}} | |||
] (or, in ] and ], ] and ], respectively). Alaska and ] are not to scale and the ] and uninhabited ] have been omitted.]] | |||
The state governments tend to have the greatest influence over most Americans' daily lives. The ] prohibits the federal government from exercising any power not delegated to it by the States in the Constitution; as a result, states handle the majority of issues most relevant to individuals within their jurisdiction. Because state governments are not authorized to print currency, they generally have to raise revenue through either taxes or bonds. As a result, state governments tend to impose severe budget cuts or raise taxes any time the economy is faltering.<ref>{{cite web| last = | first = | authorlink = | coauthors = | title = A brief overview of state fiscal conditions and the effects of federal policies on state budgets| work = | publisher = Center on Budget and Policy Priorities | date = May 12, 2004| url = http://www.cbpp.org/10-22-03sfp4.pdf| format = PDF| doi = | accessdate = July 30, 2008}}</ref> | |||
Each state has its own written constitution, government and code of laws. The Constitution stipulates only that each state must have, "a Republican Government". Therefore, there are often great differences in law and procedure between individual states, concerning issues such as property, crime, health and education, amongst others. The highest elected official of each state is the ]. Each state also has an elected ] (] is a feature of every state except ]), whose members represent the voters of the state. Each state maintains its own ] system. In some states, supreme and lower court justices are elected by the people; in others, they are appointed, as they are in the federal system. | |||
As a result of the Supreme Court case '']'', ] are considered "domestic dependent nations" that operate as ] governments subject to federal authority but, in some cases, outside of the jurisdiction of state governments. Hundreds of laws, executive orders and court cases have modified the governmental status of tribes ] individual states, but the two have continued to be recognized as separate bodies. Tribal governments vary in robustness, from a simple council used to manage all aspects of tribal affairs, to large and complex bureaucracies with several branches of government. Tribes are currently encouraged to form their own governments, with power resting in elected tribal councils, elected tribal chairpersons, or religiously appointed leaders (as is the case with ]s). Tribal citizenship and voting rights are typically restricted to individuals of native descent, but tribes are free to set whatever citizenship requirements they wish. | |||
The institutions that are responsible for local government within states are typically town, city, or county boards, water management districts, fire management districts, library districts and other similar governmental units which make laws that affect their particular area. These laws concern issues such as traffic, the sale of alcohol and the keeping of animals. The highest elected official of a town or city is usually the ]. In ], towns operate in a ] fashion, and in some states, such as ], ], and some parts of ], counties have little or no power, existing only as geographic distinctions. In other areas, county governments have more power, such as to collect taxes and maintain ] agencies. | |||
== See also == | |||
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; President | |||
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* ] | |||
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* ] | |||
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; Law | |||
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; Agencies | |||
:''Note: Most agencies are executive, but a few are legislative or judicial.'' | |||
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; States and territories | |||
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== References == | |||
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== Bibliography == | |||
* {{cite book |last=Wood |first=Gordon S. |title=The creation of the American Republic, 1776–1787|ref=Wood |authorlink=Gordon S. Wood |publisher=Gordon S. Wood, Institute of Early American History and Culture (Williamsburg, Va.) |year=1998 |pages=653 |isbn=0-8078-2422-4}} | |||
== External links == | |||
{{Wikiquote}} | {{Wikiquote}} | ||
{{Commons category|Bureaucracy}} | |||
{{Wikiversity|School:Political science}} | |||
* Albrow, Martin. Bureaucracy. London: Macmillan, 1970.<!-- ISSN/ISBN needed --> | |||
{{Wikiversity|Topic:American government}} | |||
* Kingston, Ralph. . Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.<!-- ISSN/ISBN needed --> | |||
* , the official U.S. Government portal. | |||
* On Karl Marx: Hal Draper, ''Karl Marx's Theory of Revolution, Volume 1: State and Bureaucracy''. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1979.<!-- ISSN/ISBN needed --> | |||
* Marx comments on the state bureaucracy in his and Engels discusses the origins of the state in , marxists.org | |||
{{United States topics}} | |||
*Ernest Mandel, ''Power and Money: A Marxist Theory of Bureaucracy''. London: Verso, 1992.<!-- ISSN/ISBN needed --> | |||
{{U.S. political divisions governments}} | |||
* On Weber: {{cite book|first=Tony J.|last=Watson|title=Sociology, Work and Industry|publisher=Routledge|year=1980|isbn=0-415-32165-4}} | |||
{{US Constitution}} | |||
*Neil Garston (ed.), ''Bureaucracy: Three Paradigms''. Boston: Kluwer, 1993. | |||
{{Law of the United States}} | |||
*Chowdhury, Faizul Latif (2006), ''Corrupt Bureaucracy and Privatization of Tax Enforcement''. Dhaka: Pathak Samabesh, {{ISBN|984-8120-62-9}}. | |||
{{North America topic |Government of |title=Governments of North America}} | |||
*Ludwig von Mises, '''', Yale University Press, 1962. Liberty Fund (2007), {{ISBN|978-0-86597-663-4}} | |||
* Lavie, Smadar (2014). Wrapped in the Flag of Israel: Mizrahi Single Mothers and Bureaucratic Torture. Oxford and New York: Berghahn Books; {{ISBN|978-1-78238-222-5}} hardback; {{ISBN|978-1-78238-223-2}} ebook. | |||
*Schwarz, Bill. (1996). ''The expansion of England: race, ethnicity and cultural history''. Psychology Pres; {{ISBN|0-415-06025-7}}. | |||
*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|title=Bureaucracy|publisher=Basic Books|year=1989|isbn=0-465-00785-6}} | |||
*Weber, Max, "Bureaucracy" in ''Weber, Max. Weber's Rationalism and Modern Society: New translations on Politics, Bureaucracy, and Social Stratification''. Edited and Translated by Tony Waters and Dagmar Waters, 2015. {{ISBN|1137373539}}. | |||
{{Civil service}} | |||
{{Law}} | |||
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Bureaucracy (/bjʊəˈrɒkrəsi/) refers to both a body of non-elective government officials and an administrative policy-making group. Historically, a bureaucracy was a government administration managed by departments staffed with non-elected officials. Today, bureaucracy is the administrative system governing any large institution, whether publicly owned or privately owned. The public administration in many countries is an example of a bureaucracy, but so is the centralized hierarchical structure of a business firm.
Since being coined, the word bureaucracy has developed negative connotations. Bureaucracies have been criticized as being inefficient, convoluted, or too inflexible to individuals. The dehumanizing effects of excessive bureaucracy became a major theme in the work of German-language writer Franz Kafka and are central to his novels The Trial and The Castle. The 1985 dystopian film Brazil by Terry Gilliam portrays a world in which small, otherwise insignificant errors in the bureaucratic processes of government develop into maddening and tragic consequences. The elimination of unnecessary bureaucracy is a key concept in modern managerial theory and has been an issue in some political campaigns.
Others have noted the necessity of bureaucracies in modern life. The German sociologist Max Weber argued that bureaucracy constitutes the most efficient and rational way in which one can organize the human activity and that systematic processes and organized hierarchies are necessary to maintain order, maximize efficiency, and eliminate favoritism. On the other hand, Weber also saw unfettered bureaucracy as a threat to individual freedom, with the potential of trapping individuals in an impersonal "iron cage" of rule-based, rational control.
Etymology and usage
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. It was coined in the mid-18th century by the French economist Jacques Claude Marie Vincent de Gournay and was a satirical pejorative from the outset. Gournay never wrote the term down but was later quoted at length in a letter from a contemporary:
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."
— Baron von Grimm
The first known English-language use dates to 1818. Here, too, the sense was pejorative, with Irish novelist Lady Morgan referring to "the Bureaucratie, or office tyranny, by which Ireland has so long been governed." By the mid-19th century, the word was being used in a more neutral sense, referring to a system of public administration in which offices were held by unelected career officials. In this sense "bureaucracy" was seen as a distinct form of management, often subservient to a monarchy. In the 1920s, the definition was expanded by the German sociologist Max Weber to include any system of administration conducted by trained professionals according to fixed rules. 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," and by 1957 the American sociologist Robert Merton noted that the term "bureaucrat" had become an epithet.
History
Ancient
Although the term "bureaucracy" was not coined until the mid 18th century, organized and consistent administrative systems are much older. The development of writing (ca. 3500 BC) and the use of documents was critical to the administration of this system, and the first definitive emergence of bureaucracy is in ancient Sumer, where an emergent class of scribes used clay tablets to administer the harvest and allocate its spoils. Ancient Egypt also had a hereditary class of scribes that administered the civil service bureaucracy.
The Roman Empire was administered by a hierarchy of regional proconsuls and their deputies. The reforms of Diocletian doubled the number of administrative districts and led to a large-scale expansion of Roman bureaucracy. The early Christian author Lactantius claimed that Diocletian's reforms led to widespread economic stagnation, since "the provinces were divided into minute portions, and many presidents and a multitude of inferior officers lay heavy on each territory." After the Empire split, the Byzantine Empire developed a notoriously complicated administrative hierarchy, and in time the term "Byzantine" came to refer to any complex bureaucratic structure.
In Ancient China, the Han dynasty established a complicated bureaucracy based on the teachings of Confucius, who emphasized the importance of ritual in a family, relationships, and politics. With each subsequent Dynasty, the bureaucracy evolved. During the Song dynasty, the bureaucracy became meritocratic. Following the Song reforms, competitive exams were held to determine who was qualified to hold a given position. The imperial examination system lasted until 1905, six years before the collapse of the Qing dynasty, marking the end of China's traditional bureaucratic system.
Modern
The United Kingdom
A modern form of bureaucracy evolved in the expanding Department of Excise in the United Kingdom during the 18th century. The relative efficiency and professionalism in this state-run authority allowed the government to impose a very large tax burden on the population and raise great sums of money for war expenditure. According to Niall Ferguson, the bureaucracy was based on "recruitment by examination, training, promotion on merit, regular salaries and pensions, and standardized procedures". The system was subject to a strict hierarchy and emphasis was placed on technical and efficient methods for tax collection.
Instead of the inefficient and often corrupt system of tax farming that prevailed in absolutist states such as France, the Exchequer was able to exert control over the entire system of tax revenue and government expenditure. By the late 18th century, the ratio of fiscal bureaucracy to population in Britain was approximately 1 in 1300, almost four times larger than the second most heavily bureaucratized nation, France. Thomas Taylor Meadows, Britain's consul in Guangzhou, argued in his Desultory Notes on the Government and People of China (1847) that "the long duration of the Chinese empire is solely and altogether owing to the good government which consists in the advancement of men of talent and merit only," and that the British must reform their civil service by making the institution meritocratic. Influenced by the ancient Chinese imperial examination, the Northcote–Trevelyan Report of 1854 recommended that recruitment should be on the basis of merit determined through competitive examination, candidates should have a solid general education to enable inter-departmental transfers, and promotion should be through achievement rather than "preferment, patronage, or purchase". This led to implementation of Her Majesty's Civil Service as a systematic, meritocratic civil service bureaucracy.
France
Like the British, the development of French bureaucracy was influenced by the Chinese system. Under Louis XIV of France, the old nobility had neither power nor political influence, their only privilege being exemption from taxes. The dissatisfied noblemen complained about this "unnatural" state of affairs, and discovered similarities between absolute monarchy and bureaucratic despotism. With the translation of Confucian texts during the Enlightenment, the concept of a meritocracy reached intellectuals in the West, who saw it as an alternative to the traditional ancien regime of Europe. Voltaire claimed that the Chinese had "perfected moral science" and François Quesnay advocated an economic and political system modeled after that of the Chinese.
Napoleonic France adopted this meritocracy system and soon saw a rapid and dramatic expansion of government, accompanied by the rise of the French civil service and its complex systems of bureaucracy. This phenomenon became known as "bureaumania". In the early 19th century, Napoleon attempted to reform the bureaucracies of France and other territories under his control by the imposition of the standardized Napoleonic Code. But paradoxically, that led to even further growth of the bureaucracy.
Other industrialized nations
By the mid-19th century, bureaucratic forms of administration were firmly in place across the industrialized world. Thinkers like John Stuart Mill and Karl Marx 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.
The trend toward increased bureaucratization continued in the 20th century, with the public sector employing over 5% of the workforce in many Western countries. Within capitalist systems, informal bureaucratic structures began to appear in the form of corporate power hierarchies, as detailed in mid-century works like The Organization Man and The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit. Meanwhile, in the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc nations, a powerful class of bureaucratic administrators termed nomenklatura governed nearly all aspects of public life.
The 1980s brought a backlash against perceptions of "big government" and the associated bureaucracy. Politicians like Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan gained power by promising to eliminate government regulatory bureaucracies, which they saw as overbearing, and return economic production to a more purely capitalistic mode, which they saw as more efficient. In the business world, managers like Jack Welch gained fortune and renown by eliminating bureaucratic structures inside corporations. Still, in the modern world, most organized institutions rely on bureaucratic systems to manage information, process records, and administer complex systems, although the decline of paperwork and the widespread use of electronic databases is transforming the way bureaucracies function.
Theories
Karl Marx
Karl Marx theorized about the role and function of bureaucracy in his Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right, published in 1843. In Philosophy of Right, Hegel had supported the role of specialized officials in public administration, although he never used the term "bureaucracy" himself. Marx, by contrast, was opposed to bureaucracy. Marx posited that while corporate and government bureaucracy seem to operate in opposition, in actuality they mutually rely 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."
John Stuart Mill
Writing in the early 1860s, political scientist John Stuart Mill theorized that successful monarchies were essentially bureaucracies, and found evidence of their existence in Imperial China, the Russian Empire, 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 believed this 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."
Max Weber
–Max WeberBureaucratic administration means fundamentally domination through knowledge
The German sociologist Max Weber was the first to formally study bureaucracy and his works led to the popularization of this term. In his 1922 essay Bureaucracy,, published in his magnum opus Economy and Society, Weber described many ideal-typical forms of public administration, government, and business. His ideal-typical bureaucracy, whether public or private, is characterized by:
- hierarchical organization
- formal lines of authority (chain of command)
- a fixed area of activity
- rigid division of labor
- regular and continuous execution of assigned tasks
- all decisions and powers specified and restricted by regulations
- officials with expert training in their fields
- career advancement dependent on technical qualifications
- qualifications evaluated by organizational rules, not individuals
Weber listed several preconditions for the emergence of bureaucracy, including an increase in the amount of space and population being administered, an increase in the complexity of the administrative tasks being carried out, and the existence of a monetary economy requiring a more efficient administrative system. Development of communication and transportation technologies make more efficient administration possible, and democratization and rationalization of culture results in demands for equal treatment.
Although he was not necessarily an admirer of bureaucracy, Weber saw bureaucratization as the most efficient and rational way of organizing human activity and therefore as the key to rational-legal authority, indispensable to the modern world. Furthermore, he saw it as the key process in the ongoing rationalization of Western society. Weber also saw bureaucracy, however, as a threat to individual freedoms, 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 "iron cage" of bureaucratic, rule-based, rational control. Weber's critical study of the bureaucratization of society became one of the most enduring parts of his work. Many aspects of modern public administration are based on his work, and a classic, hierarchically organized civil service of the Continental type is called "Weberian civil service".
Woodrow Wilson
Writing as an academic while a professor at Bryn Mawr College, Woodrow Wilson's essay "The Study of Administration" argued for bureaucracy as a professional cadre, devoid of allegiance to fleeting politics. 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 that, "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 Ludwig von Mises compared bureaucratic management to profit management. Profit management, he argued, is the most effective method of organization when the services rendered may be checked by economic calculation of profit and loss. When, however, the service in question can not be subjected to economic calculation, bureaucratic management is necessary. He did not oppose universally bureaucratic management; on the contrary, he argued that bureaucracy is an indispensable method for social organization, for it is the only method by which the law can be made supreme, and is the protector of the individual against despotic arbitrariness. Using the example of the Catholic Church, he pointed out that bureaucracy is only appropriate for an organization whose code of conduct is not subject to change. He then went on to argue that complaints about bureaucratization usually refer not to the criticism of the bureaucratic methods themselves, but to "the intrusion of bureaucracy into all spheres of human life." 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. According to him, "What must be realized is only that the strait jacket of bureaucratic organization paralyzes the individual's initiative, while within the capitalist market society an innovator still has a chance to succeed. The former makes for stagnation and preservation of inveterate methods, the latter makes for progress and improvement."
Robert K. Merton
American sociologist Robert K. Merton 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 noted the dysfunctional aspects of bureaucracy, which he attributed to a "trained incapacity" resulting from "over conformity". He believed that bureaucrats are more likely to defend their own entrenched interests than to act to benefit the organization as a whole but that pride in their craft makes them resistant to changes in established routines. Merton stated that bureaucrats emphasize formality over interpersonal relationships, and have been trained to ignore the special circumstances of particular cases, causing them to come across as "arrogant" and "haughty".
Elliott Jaques
In his book “A General Theory of Bureaucracy”, first published in 1976, Dr. Elliott Jaques describes the discovery of a universal and uniform underlying structure of managerial or work levels in the bureaucratic hierarchy for any type of employment systems.
Elliott Jaques argues and presents evidence that for the bureaucracy to provide a valuable contribution to the open society some of the following conditions must be met:
- Number of levels in a bureaucracy hierarchy must match the complexity level of the employment system for which the bureaucratic hierarchy is created (Elliott Jaques identified maximum 8 levels of complexity for bureaucratic hierarchies).
- Roles within a bureaucratic hierarchy differ in the level of work complexity.
- The level of work complexity in the roles must be matched with the level of human capability of the role holders (Elliott Jaques identified maximum 8 Levels of human capability).
- The level of work complexity in any managerial role within a bureaucratic hierarchy must be one level higher than the level of work complexity of the subordinate roles.
- Any managerial role in a bureaucratic hierarchy must have full managerial accountabilities and authorities (veto selection to the team, decide task types and specific task assignments, decide personal effectiveness and recognition, decide initiation of removal from the team within due process).
- Lateral working accountabilities and authorities must be defined for all the roles in the hierarchy (7 types of lateral working accountabilities and authorities: collateral, advisory, service-getting and -giving, coordinative, monitoring, auditing, prescribing).
The definition of effective bureaucratic hierarchy by Elliott Jaques is of importance not only to sociology but to social psychology, social anthropology, economics, politics, and social philosophy. They also have a practical application in business and administrative studies.
See also
- Adhocracy
- Authority
- Civil servant
- Cover your ass
- Hierarchical organization
- Michel Crozier
- Power (social and political)
- Public administration
- Red tape
- Requisite Organization
- State (polity)
- Technocracy
References
- "Bureaucracy - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary". Merriam-webster.com. Retrieved 26 May 2013.
- "definition of bureaucracy". Thefreedictionary.com. Retrieved 26 May 2013.
- "Bureaucracy Definition". Investopedia. 4 September 2009. Retrieved 26 May 2013.
- Philip K. Howard (2012). "To Fix America's Education Bureaucracy, We Need to Destroy It". The Atlantic.
- Devin Dwyer (2009). "Victims of 'Health Insurance Bureaucracy' Speak Out". ABC News.
- David Martin (2010). "Gates Criticizes Bloated Military Bureaucracy". CBS News.
- "How to bend the rules of corporate bureaucracy". Usatoday30.usatoday.com. 8 November 2002. Retrieved 26 May 2013.
- "Still a bureaucracy: Normal paperwork continues its flow at Vatican". Americancatholic.org. Retrieved 26 May 2013.
- Weber, Max "Bureaucracy" in Weber's Rationalism and Modern Society, translated and edited by Tony Waters and Dagmar Waters, Palgrave-Macmillan 2015. p. 114
- ^ J.C.N. Raadschelders (1998). Handbook of Administrative History. Transaction Publishers. p. 142.
- Ronald N. Johnson; Gary D. Libecap (1994). The Federal Civil Service System and the Problem of Bureaucracy (PDF). University of Chicago Press. pp. 1–11. Retrieved 12 March 2014.
- David Luban; Alan Strudler; David Wasserman (1992). "Moral Responsibility in the Age of Bureaucracy". Michigan Law Review. 90 (8).
- Wren, Daniel; Bedeian, Arthur (2009). "Chapter 10:The Emergence of the Management Process and Organization Theory". The Evolution of Management Thought (PDF). Wiley.
- Garrett; et al. (March–April 2006). "Assessing the Impact of Bureaucracy Bashing by Electoral Campaigns". Public Administration Review: 228–40. doi:10.1111/j.1540-6210.2006.00575.x. Retrieved 12 March 2014.
- ^ Richard Swedberg; Ola Agevall (2005). The Max Weber dictionary: key words and central concepts. Stanford University Press. pp. 18–21. ISBN 978-0-8047-5095-0. Retrieved 23 March 2011.
- ^ George Ritzer, Enchanting a Disenchanted World: Revolutionizing the Means of Consumption, Pine Forge Press, 2004; ISBN 0-7619-8819-X, ISBN 076198819X&id=DznT_TbfKzMC&pg=PA55&lpg=PA55&dq=rationalization+%22iron+cage%22+%22polar+night+of+icy+darkness%22&sig=T4GVWJHDLYKbPVBg7lXN5KJFSb4 Google Print, p. 55
- ^ "Bureaucracy". Merriam-Webster Dictionary (definition). Retrieved 26 May 2013.
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- Walker, David (9 July 2003). "Fair game". London, UK: The Guardian. Retrieved 9 July 2003.
- Henry Jacoby (1 January 1973). The Bureaucratization of the World. University of California Press. p. 43. ISBN 978-0-520-02083-2. Retrieved 16 September 2013.
- ^ Schwarz (1996), p. 229
- Handbook of Administrative History - Paper - J.C.N. Raadschelders. Books.google.com. Retrieved 26 May 2013.
- Michael Voslensky (1984). Nomenklatura: The Soviet Ruling Class (1st ed.). Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-17657-0.
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- "Jack Welch's Encore". Businessweek.com. 14 June 1997. Archived from the original on 1 January 2010. Retrieved 12 July 2010.
{{cite web}}
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suggested) (help) - Stewart R. Clegg; Martin Harris; Harro Höpfl, eds. (2011). Managing Modernity: Beyond Bureaucracy?. Oxford University Press.
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- ^ Kenneth Allan; Kenneth D. Allan (2 November 2005). Explorations in Classical Sociological Theory: Seeing the Social Worl. Pine Forge Press. pp. 172–76. ISBN 978-1-4129-0572-5.
- Weber 2015, p. 76, in Weber's Rationalism and Modern Society: New Translations on Politics, Bureaucracy, and Social Stratification, edited and translated by Tony Waters and Dagmar Waters. New York: Palgrave Macmillan
- Max Weber (2015) extract, books.google.ca; accessed 30 August 2015.
- ^ George Ritzer (29 September 2009). Contemporary Sociological Theory and Its Classical Roots: The Basics. McGraw-Hill. pp. 38–42. ISBN 978-0-07-340438-7. Retrieved 22 March 2011.
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- Constructing the infrastructure for the knowledge economy : methods and tools, theory and structure. Linger, Henry,. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers. 2004. p. 104. ISBN 0306485540. OCLC 55877281.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: others (link) - Elliott., Jaques, (1976). A general theory of bureaucracy. London: Heinemann. ISBN 0435824783. OCLC 2089721.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - "Psychoanalysis Psychotherapy". www.psychoanalysis-and-therapy.com. Retrieved 1 March 2018.
- "In Praise of Hierarchy". Harvard Business Review. 1 January 1990. Retrieved 1 March 2018.
Further reading
- Albrow, Martin. Bureaucracy. London: Macmillan, 1970.
- Kingston, Ralph. Bureaucrats and Bourgeois Society: Office Politics and Individual Credit, 1789–1848. Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.
- 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 Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right and Engels discusses the origins of the state in Origins of the Family, marxists.org
- Ernest Mandel, Power and Money: A Marxist Theory of Bureaucracy. London: Verso, 1992.
- On Weber: Watson, Tony J. (1980). Sociology, Work and Industry. Routledge. 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, Bureaucracy, Yale University Press, 1962. Liberty Fund (2007), ISBN 978-0-86597-663-4
- Lavie, Smadar (2014). Wrapped in the Flag of Israel: Mizrahi Single Mothers and Bureaucratic Torture. Oxford and New York: Berghahn Books; ISBN 978-1-78238-222-5 hardback; ISBN 978-1-78238-223-2 ebook.
- Schwarz, Bill. (1996). The expansion of England: race, ethnicity and cultural history. Psychology Pres; ISBN 0-415-06025-7.
- Weber, Max. The Theory of Social and Economic Organization. Translated by A.M. Henderson and Talcott Parsons. London: Collier Macmillan Publishers, 1947.
- Wilson, James Q. (1989). Bureaucracy. Basic Books. ISBN 0-465-00785-6.
- Weber, Max, "Bureaucracy" in Weber, Max. Weber's Rationalism and Modern Society: New translations on Politics, Bureaucracy, and Social Stratification. Edited and Translated by Tony Waters and Dagmar Waters, 2015. ISBN 1137373539. English translation of "Bureaucracy" by Max Weber.
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