Bureaucracy

For other uses, see Bureaucracy (disambiguation).

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Bureaucracy (/bjʊəˈrɒkrəsi/; bure-OK-rə-see) is a system of organization where decisions are made by a body of non-elected officials.[1] Historically, a bureaucracy was a government administration managed by departments staffed with non-elected officials.[2] Today, bureaucracy is the administrative system governing any large institution, whether publicly owned or privately owned.[3] The public administration in many jurisdictions is an example of bureaucracy, as is any centralized hierarchical structure of an institution, including corporations, societies, nonprofit organisations, and clubs.

There are two key dilemmas in bureaucracy. The first dilemma revolves around whether bureaucrats should be autonomous or directly accountable to their political masters.[4] The second dilemma revolves around bureaucrats' responsibility to follow preset rules, and what degree of latitude they may have to determine appropriate solutions for circumstances that are unaccounted for in advance.[4]

Various commentators have argued for the necessity of bureaucracies in modern society. The German sociologist Max Weber argued that bureaucracy constitutes the most efficient and rational way in which human activity can be organized 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.[5][6]

  1. ^ Compare: "Bureaucracy - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary". Merriam-webster.com. Retrieved 26 May 2013. Definition of bureaucracy [:] [...] 1a: a body of nonelected government officials
    b: an administrative policy-making group
  2. ^ "definition of bureaucracy". Thefreedictionary.com. Retrieved 26 May 2013.
  3. ^ Weber, Max "Bureaucracy" in Weber's Rationalism and Modern Society, translated and edited by Tony Waters and Dagmar Waters, Palgrave-Macmillan 2015. p. 114
  4. ^ a b Dahlström, Carl; Lapuente, Victor (2022). "Comparative Bureaucratic Politics". Annual Review of Political Science. 25 (1): 43–63. doi:10.1146/annurev-polisci-051120-102543. ISSN 1094-2939. S2CID 246605188.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Bureaucratic was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference GRitzer was invoked but never defined (see the help page).