Bureaucracy is the structure and set of regulations in place to control activity, usually in large organizations and government. As opposed to adhocracy, it is represented by standardized procedure (rule-following) that dictates the execution of most or all processes within the body, formal division of powers, hierarchy, and relationships. Adhocracy is a type of Organization being antonymous to Bureaucracy. In practice the interpretation and execution of policy can lead to informal influence. A policy is a deliberate plan of action to guide decisions and achieve rational outcome(s

Bureaucracy is a concept in sociology and political science referring to the way that the administrative execution and enforcement of legal rules are socially organized. Sociology (from Latin: socius "companion" and the suffix -ology "the study of" from Greek λόγος lógos "knowledge" Political science is a branch of Social sciences that deals with the theory and practice of Politics and the description and analysis of Political systems Four structural concepts are central to any definition of bureaucracy:

1. a well-defined division of administrative labor among persons and offices,
2. a personnel system with consistent patterns of recruitment and stable linear careers,
3. a hierarchy among offices, such that the authority and status are differentially distributed among actors, and
4. formal and informal networks that connect organizational actors to one another through flows of information and patterns of cooperation.

Examples of everyday bureaucracies include governments, armed forces, corporations, hospitals, courts, ministries and schools. For the government of parliamentary systems see Executive (government. For the military meaning see Armed forces. For the Soviet sports society see Armed Forces (sports society Armed Forces A corporation is a separate legal entity usually used to conduct business A hospital is an institution for Health care providing treatment by specialised staff and equipment and often but not always providing for A court is a forum used by a power base to adjudicate disputes and dispense civil, labour administrative and criminal Justice under its A ministry is a specialised organisation responsible for a sector of Government Public administration, sometimes led by a minister, but usually a senior A school (from Greek σχολεῖον - scholeion) is an Institution designed to allow and encourage Students (or "pupils"

Contents 1 Origin of the concept 2 Development of Bureaucracy 3 Entrepreneurship, Networked Legitimacy, and Autonomy 4 Karl Marx and bureaucracy 5 Max Weber on bureaucracy 5.1 Criticism 6 American Usage 7 Austrian School Analysis of Bureaucracy 8 Current academic debates 9 Sources 10 References 11 External links 12 See also

Origin of the concept

The word "bureaucracy" stems from the word "bureau", used from the early 18th century in Western Europe not just to refer to a writing desk, but to an office, i. The 18th century lasted from 1701 to 1800 in the Gregorian calendar, in accordance with the Anno Domini / Common Era numbering system e. , a workplace, where officials worked. The original French meaning of the word bureau was the baize used to cover desks. French ( français,) is a Romance language spoken around the world by 118 million people as a native language and by about 180 to 260 million people Baize is a coarse Woollen (or in cheaper variants Cotton) Cloth, sometimes called " Felt " in American English based on a The term bureaucracy came into use shortly before the French Revolution of 1789, and from there rapidly spread to other countries. The French Revolution (1789–1799 was a period of political and social upheaval in the History of France, during which the French governmental structure previously an The Greek suffix - kratia or kratos - means "power" or "rule". Greek (el ελληνική γλώσσα or simply el ελληνικά — "Hellenic" is an Indo-European language, spoken today by 15-22 million people mainly

In a letter of July 1, 1790, the German Baron von Grimm declared: "We are obsessed by the idea of regulation, and our Masters of Requests refuse to understand that there is an infinity of things in a great state with which a government should not concern itself. Friedrich Melchior Baron von Grimm ( December 26, 1723 &ndash December 19, 1807) was an Author, and the son of a German " Jean Claude Marie Vincent 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. Jean Claude Marie Vincent de Gournay (1712-1759 was a French economist and Intendant of commerce one of the creators of the laissez faire laissez " Sometimes he used to invent a fourth or fifth form of government under the heading of "bureaucracy".

In another letter of July 15, 1765 Baron Grimm wrote also, "The real spirit of the laws in France is that bureaucracy of which the late Monsieur de Gournay used to complain so greatly; here the offices, clerks, secretaries, inspectors and intendants are not appointed to benefit the public interest, indeed the public interest appears to have been established so that offices might exist. "^[1]

This quote refers to a traditional controversy about bureaucracy, namely the perversion of means and ends so that means become ends in themselves, and the greater good is lost sight of; as a corollary, the substitution of sectional interests for the general interest. The suggestion here is that, left uncontrolled, the bureaucracy will become increasingly self-serving and corrupt, rather than serving society. Political corruption is the use of governmental powers by government officials for illegitimate private gain

Development of Bureaucracy

Perhaps the early example of a bureaucrat is the scribe, who first arose as a professional in the early cities of Sumer. A scribe (or scrivener) is a person who writes books or documents by hand as a profession Sumer ( Sumerian: sux-Latn [[Ki (earth ki]]-[[EN (cuneiform en]]-'''ĝir15''', Akkadian: Šumeru; possibly Biblical Shinar The Sumerian script was so complicated that it required specialists who had trained for their entire lives in the discipline of writing to manipulate it. These scribes could wield significant power, as they had a total monopoly on the keeping of records and creation of inscriptions on monuments to kings.

In later, larger empires like Achaemenid Persia, bureaucracies quickly expanded as government expanded and increased its functions. The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenid Persian Empire ( haχɒmaneʃijɒn (558–330 BC was the first of the Persian Empires to rule over significant portions of In the Persian Empire, the central government was divided into administrative provinces led by satraps. A province is a territorial unit almost always an Administrative division. See also the related deity Satrapes. Satrap (Persian ساتراپ was the name given to the governors of the Provinces of ancient The satraps were appointed by the Shah to control the provinces. Shah is an Iranian term for a Monarch (leader that has been adopted in many other languages In addition, a general and a royal secretary were stationed in each province to supervise troop recruitment and keep records, respectively. A secretary is either an administrative assistant in business office administration, or a certain type of mid- or high-level governmental position such as a The Achaemenid Great Kings also sent royal inspectors to tour the empire and report on local conditions.

The most modernesque of all ancient bureaucracies, however, was the Chinese bureaucracy. The term modern period or modern era (sometimes also modern times) is the period of history that followed the Middle Ages between c Scholar-bureaucrats or scholar-officials were civil servants appointed by the Emperor of China to perform day-to-day governance from the Sui Dynasty to During the chaos of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States, Confucius recognized the need for a stable system of administrators to lend good governance even when the leaders were inept. The Spring and Autumn Period ( was a period in Chinese history which roughly corresponds to the first half of the Eastern Zhou dynasty (from the second half of the 8th century BC The Warring States Period ( also known as the Era of Warring States covers the period from some time in the 5th century BC to the unification of China by the Confucius ( lit " Master Kung " September 28, 551 BC - 479 BC) was a Chinese thinker and social philosopher Chinese bureaucracy, first implemented during the Qin dynasty but under more Confucian lines under the Han, calls for the appointment of bureaucratic positions based on merit via a system of examinations. Not to be confused with the Qing Dynasty, the last dynasty of China Confucianism ( is a Chinese ethical and philosophical system originally developed from the teachings of the fifth century B The Han Dynasty ( 206 BC–220 AD followed the Qin Dynasty and preceded the Three Kingdoms in China. Meritocracy is a system of a government or another organization wherein Appointments are made and responsibilities are given based on demonstrated talent and Ability The Imperial examinations ( in Imperial China determined who among the population would be permitted to enter the state's Bureaucracy. Although the power of the Chinese bureaucrats waxed and waned throughout China's long history, the imperial examination system lasted as late as 1905, and modern China still employs a formidable bureaucracy in its daily workings. Chinese civilization originated in various city-states along the Yellow River ( valley in the Neolithic era Year 1905 ( MCMV) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year starting

Modern bureaucracies arose as the government of states grew larger during the modern period, and especially following the Industrial Revolution. The Industrial Revolution was a period in the late 18th and early 19th centuries when major changes in agriculture manufacturing and transportation had a profound effect on the Tax collectors, perhaps the most reviled of all bureaucrats, became increasingly necessary as states began to take in more and more revenue, while the role of administrators increased as the functions of government multiplied. Along with this expansion, though, came the recognition of the corruption and nepotism often inherent within the managerial system, leading to civil service reform on a large scale in many countries towards the end of the 19th century. Political corruption is the use of governmental powers by government officials for illegitimate private gain Nepotism is the showing of favoritism toward relatives and friends based upon that relationship rather than on an objective evaluation of ability Meritocracy or suitability The United States Civil Service consists of all appointive positions in the executive judicial and legislative branches of the Government of the United States except positions in the The 19th century of the Common Era began on January 1, 1801 and ended on December 31, 1900, according to the Gregorian calendar

Entrepreneurship, Networked Legitimacy, and Autonomy

In "The Forging of Bureaucratic Autonomy," Daniel Carpenter argues that bureaucratic autonomy emerges only upon the historical achievement of three conditions:

1. the autonomous bureaucracies are politically differentiated from the actors who seek to control them.
2. the bureaucratic autonomy requires the development of unique organizational capacities - capacities to analyze, to create new programs, to solve problems, to plan, to administer programs with efficiency, and to ward off corruption.
3. bureaucratic autonomy requires political legitimacy, or strong organizational reputations embedded in an independent power base.

Karl Marx and bureaucracy

In Karl Marx's and Friedrich Engels's theory of historical materialism, the historical origin of bureaucracy is to be found in four sources: religion, the formation of the state, commerce and technology. Friedrich Engels (28 November 1820 – 5 August 1895 was a German social scientist and philosopher, who Historical materialism is the methodological approach to the study of society economics and history which was first articulated by Karl Marx ( 1818 - 1883

Thus, the earliest bureaucracies consisted of castes of religious clergy, officials and scribes operating various rituals, and armed functionaries specifically delegated to keep order. In the historical transition from primitive egalitarian communities to a civil society divided into social classes and estates, beginning from about 10,000 years ago, authority is increasingly centralized in, and enforced by a state apparatus existing separately from society. This state formulates, imposes and enforces laws, and levies taxes, giving rise to an officialdom enacting these functions. Thus, the state mediates in conflicts among the people and keeps those conflicts within acceptable bounds; it also organizes the defense of territory. Most importantly, the right of ordinary people to carry and use weapons of force becomes increasingly restricted; in civil society, forcing other people to do things becomes increasingly the legal right of the state authorities only. ^[2]

But the growth of trade and commerce adds a new, distinctive dimension to bureaucracy, insofar as it requires the keeping of accounts and the processing/recording of transactions, as well as the enforcement of legal rules governing trade. If resources are increasingly distributed by prices in markets, this requires extensive and complex systems of record-keeping, management and calculation, conforming to legal standards. Price in Economics and Business is the result of an exchange and from that trade we assign a numerical Monetary value to a good, Eventually, this means that the total amount of work involved in commercial administration outgrows the total amount of work involved in government administration. In modern capitalist society, private sector bureaucracy is larger than government bureaucracy, if measured by the number of administrative workers in the division of labor as a whole. Division of labour or specialization is the specialization of cooperative labour in specific circumscribed tasks and roles intended to increase the Productivity Some corporations nowadays have a turnover larger than the national income of whole countries, with large administrations supervising operations.

A fourth source of bureaucracy Marxists have commented on inheres in the technologies of mass production, which require many standardized routines and procedures to be performed. Even if mechanization replaces people with machinery, people are still necessary to design, control, supervise and operate the machinery. The technologies chosen may not be the ones that are best for everybody, but which create incomes for a particular class of people or maintain their power. This type of bureaucracy is nowadays often called a technocracy, which owes its power to control over specialized technical knowledge or control over critical information. Technocracy: A form of government in which scientists and technical experts are in control "technocracy is described as that society in which those who govern justify themselves

In Marx's theory, bureaucracy rarely creates new wealth by itself, but rather controls, co-ordinates and governs the production, distribution and consumption of wealth. The bureaucracy as a social stratum derives its income from the appropriation of part of the social surplus product of human labor. Surplus product (German Mehrprodukt) is a concept explicitly theorised by Karl Marx in his critique of Political economy. Wealth is appropriated by the bureaucracy by law through fees, taxes, levies, tributes, licensing etc.

Bureaucracy is therefore always a cost to society, but this cost may be accepted insofar as it makes social order possible, and maintains it by enforcing the rule of law. Social order is a concept used in sociology history and other social sciences Nevertheless there are constant conflicts about this cost, because it has the big effect on the distribution of incomes; all producers will try to get the maximum return from what they produce, and minimize administrative costs. Typically, in epochs of strong economic growth, bureaucracies proliferate; when economic growth declines, a fight breaks out to cut back bureaucratic costs.

Whether or not a bureaucracy as a social stratum can become a genuine ruling class depends greatly on the prevailing property relations and the mode of production of wealth. The term ruling class refers to the Social class of a given society that decides upon and sets that society's political policy Property is any physical or virtual entity that is owned by an individual In the writings of Karl Marx and the Marxist theory of Historical materialism, a mode of production (in German Produktionsweise, meaning 'the In capitalist society, the state typically lacks an independent economic base, finances many activities on credit, and is heavily dependent on levying taxes as a source of income. Therefore, its power is limited by the costs which private owners of the productive assets will tolerate. If, however, the state owns the means of production itself, defended by military power, the state bureaucracy can become much more powerful, and act as a ruling class or power elite. Means Of Production is a compilation of Aim 's early 12" and EP releases recorded between 1995 and 1998 Because in that case, it directly controls the sources of new wealth, and manages or distributes the social product. This is the subject of Marxist theories of bureaucratic collectivism. Bureaucratic collectivism is a theory of class society It is used by some Trotskyists to describe the nature of the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin

Marx himself however never theorized this possibility in detail, and it has been the subject of much controversy among Marxists. The core organizational issue in these disputes concerns the degree to which the administrative allocation of resources by government authorities and the market allocation of resources can achieve the social goal of creating a more free, just and prosperous society. Which decisions should be made by whom, at what level, so that an optimal allocation of resources results? This is just as much a moral-political issue as an economic issue.

Central to the Marxian concept of socialism is the idea of workers' self-management, which assumes the internalization of a morality and self-discipline among people that would make bureaucratic supervision and control redundant, together with a drastic reorganization of the division of labor in society. Socialism refers to a broad set of economic theories of social organization advocating state or collective ownership and administration of the Means of production and distribution Morality (from the Latin la moralitas "manner character proper behavior" has three principal meanings Bureaucracies emerge to mediate conflicts of interest on the basis of laws, but if those conflicts of interest disappear (because resources are allocated directly in a fair way), bureaucracies would also be redundant.

Marx's critics are however skeptical of the feasibility of this kind of socialism, given the continuing need for administration and the rule of law, as well as the propensity of people to put their own self-interest before the communal interest. That is, the argument is that self-interest and the communal interest might never coincide, or, at any rate, can always diverge significantly.

Max Weber on bureaucracy

Max Weber has probably been one of the most influential users of the word in its social science sense. Maximilian Carl Emil Weber (maks 'veːbɐ (21 April 1864 &ndash 14 June 1920 was a German political economist and sociologist who was considered The social sciences comprise academic disciplines concerned with the study of the social life of human groups and individuals including Anthropology, Communication studies He is well-known for his study of bureaucratization of society; many aspects of modern public administration go back to him; a classic, hierarchically organized civil service of the continental type is — if perhaps mistakenly — called "Weberian civil service". Public administration can be broadly described as the development implementation and study of branches of government Policy. See also Bureaucrat The term civil service has two distinct meanings Branch of governmental service in which individuals are hired on the basis

However, contrary to popular belief, "bureaucracy" was an English word before Weber; the Oxford English Dictionary cites usage in several different years between 1818 and 1860, prior to Weber's birth in 1864. English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States The Oxford English Dictionary ( OED) published by the Oxford University Press (OUP is a comprehensive Dictionary of the English Year 1818 ( MDCCCXVIII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Common Year 1860 ( MDCCLX) was a Leap year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Leap year starting Year 1864 ( MDCCCLXIV) was a Leap year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Leap year

Weber described the ideal type bureaucracy in positive terms, considering it to be a more rational and efficient form of organization than the alternatives that preceded it, which he characterized as charismatic domination and traditional domination. Ideal type, also known as pure type or Idealtyp in the original German, is a Typological term most closely associated with Sociologist The Sociologist Max Weber defined charismatic authority as "resting on devotion to the exceptional sanctity heroism or exemplary character of an individual person Traditional authority (also known as traditional domination is a form of Leadership in which the authority of an Organization or a Ruling regime is largely According to his terminology, bureaucracy is part of legal domination. Rational-legal authority (also known as rational authority, legal authority, rational domination, legal domination, or bureaucratic However, he also emphasized that bureaucracy becomes inefficient when a decision must be adopted to an individual case.

According to Weber, the attributes of modern bureaucracy include its impersonality, concentration of the means of administration, a leveling effect on social and economic differences and implementation of a system of authority that is practically indestructible.

Weber's analysis of bureaucracy concerns:

• the historical and administrative reasons for the process of bureaucratization (especially in the Western civilisation)
• the impact of the rule of law upon the functioning of bureaucratic organisations
• the typical personal orientation and occupational position of a bureaucratic officials as a status group
• the most important attributes and consequences of bureaucracy in the modern world

A bureaucratic organization is governed by the following seven principles:

1. official business is conducted on a continuous basis
2. official business is conducted with strict accordance to the following rules:
   1. the duty of each official to do certain types of work is delimited in terms of impersonal criteria
   2. the official is given the authority necessary to carry out his assigned functions
   3. the means of coercion at his disposal are strictly limited and conditions of their use strictly defined
3. every official's responsibilities and authority are part of a vertical hierarchy of authority, with respective rights of supervision and appeal
4. officials do not own the resources necessary for the performance of their assigned functions but are accountable for their use of these resources
5. official and private business and income are strictly separated
6. offices cannot be appropriated by their incumbents (inherited, sold, etc. The rule of law, in its most basic form is the principle that no one is above the law The German Sociologist Max Weber formulated a Three-component theory of stratification in which he defines status class (also known as a status group )
7. official business is conducted on the basis of written documents

A bureaucratic official:

• is personally free and appointed to his position on the basis of conduct
• exercises the authority delegated to him in accordance with impersonal rules, and his or her loyalty is enlisted on behalf of the faithful execution of his official duties
• appointment and job placement are dependent upon his or her technical qualifications
• administrative work is a full-time occupation
• work is rewarded by a regular salary and prospects of advancement in a lifetime career

An official must exercise his or her judgment and his or her skills, but his or her duty is to place these at the service of a higher authority; ultimately he/she is responsible only for the impartial execution of assigned tasks and must sacrifice his or her personal judgment if it runs counter to his or her official duties.

Weber's work has been continued by many, like Robert Michels with his Iron Law of Oligarchy. Robert Michels ( 9 January 1876, Cologne, Germany — 3 May 1936, Rome, Italy) was a German The iron law of oligarchy is a political theory first developed by the German syndicalist sociologist Robert Michels in his 1911 book Political

Criticism

As Max Weber himself noted, real bureaucracy will be less optimal and effective than his ideal type model. Each of Weber's seven principles can degenerate:

• Vertical hierarchy of authority can become chaotic, some offices can be omitted in the decision making process, there may be conflicts of competence;
• Competences can be unclear and used contrary to the spirit of the law; sometimes a decision itself may be considered more important than its effect;
• Nepotism, corruption, political infighting and other degenerations can counter the rule of impersonality and can create a recruitment and promotion system not based on meritocracy but rather on oligarchy;
• Officials try to avoid accountability and seek anonymity by avoiding documentation of their procedures (or creating extreme amounts of chaotic, confusing documents, see also: transparency)

Even a non-degenerated bureaucracy can be affected by common problems:

• Overspecialization, making individual officials not aware of larger consequences of their actions
• Rigidity and inertia of procedures, making decision-making slow or even impossible when facing some unusual case, and similarly delaying change, evolution and adaptation of old procedures to new circumstances;
• A phenomenon of group thinking - zealotry, loyalty and lack of critical thinking regarding the organisation which is perfect and always correct by definition, making the organisation unable to change and realise its own mistakes and limitations;
• Disregard for dissenting opinions, even when such views suit the available data better than the opinion of the majority;
• A phenomenon of Catch-22 (named after a famous book by Joseph Heller) - as bureaucracy creates more and more rules and procedures, their complexity rises and coordination diminishes, facilitating creation of contradictory and recursive rules
• Not allowing people to use common sense, as everything must be as is written by the law. Nepotism is the showing of favoritism toward relatives and friends based upon that relationship rather than on an objective evaluation of ability Meritocracy or suitability Oligarchy' ( Greek, Oligarkhía) is a Form of government where Political power effectively rests with a small elite segment Accountability is a concept in Ethics with several meanings It is often used synonymously with such concepts as answerability enforcement responsibility, blameworthiness Catch-22 is a term coined by Joseph Heller in his novel Catch-22, describing a False dilemma in a rule regulation procedure or situation Catch-22 is a satirical, historical Novel by the American author Joseph Heller, first published in 1961 Joseph Heller (May 1 1923 – December 12 1999 was an American Satirical novelist Short story writer and playwright In Classical logic, a contradiction consists of a logical incompatibility between two or more Propositions It occurs when the propositions taken together yield Recursion, in Mathematics and Computer science, is a method of defining functions in which the function being defined is applied within its own definition

In the most common examples bureaucracy can lead to the treatment of individual human beings as impersonal objects. This process has been criticised by many philosophers and writers (Aldous Huxley, George Orwell, Hannah Arendt) and satirized in the comic strip Dilbert,TV show The Office, Franz Kafka's novels The Trial and The Castle , Douglas Adams' story The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and the films Brazil and Office Space. Aldous Leonard Huxley (26 July 1894 &ndash 22 November 1963 was an English writer and one of the most prominent members of the famous Huxley family. Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950 who used the Pseudonym George Orwell, was an English writer Dilbert (first published April 16, 1989) is an American Comic strip written and drawn by Scott Adams. The Office is the title of multiple television Situation comedy shows The Trial ( Der Process) is a novel by The Castle is a philosophical novel by Franz Kafka. In it a protagonist known only as K Douglas Noël Adams (11 March 1952 &ndash 11 May 2001 was an English author comic Radio dramatist The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a science fiction comedy series Brazil is a 1985 Dystopian Black comedy film directed by Terry Gilliam. Office Space is an American Comedy film, released in 1999, that was written and directed by Mike Judge.

American Usage

Woodrow Wilson, writing as an academic, professed:^[3]

. Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28 1856—February 3 1924 was the twenty-eighth President of the United States. . . [A]dministration in the United States must be at all points sensitive to public opinion. A body of thoroughly trained officials serving during good behavior we must have in any case: that is a plain business necessity. But the apprehension that such a body will be anything un-American clears away the moment it is asked. What is to constitute good behavior? For that question obviously carries its own answer on its face. Steady, hearty allegiance to the policy of the government they serve will constitute good behavior. That policy will have no taint of officialism about it. It will not be the creation of permanent officials, but of statesmen whose responsibility to public opinion will be direct and inevitable. Bureaucracy can exist only where the whole service of the state is removed from the common political life of the people, its chiefs as well as its rank and file. Its motives, its objects, its policy, its standards, must be bureaucratic.

Nevertheless, American colloquial usage is usually derogatory unless established otherwise. An example might be that an organization which puts its own comfort, convenience and longevity ahead of its mission could be called a bureaucracy.

It is no wonder that popular dictionary definitions echo our profound dislike of bureaucracy. The American Heritage Dictionary' definition of bureaucracy reads in part: "numerous offices and adherence to inflexible rules of operation;. . . any unwieldy administration. " According to Webster's New world Dictionary of the American Language, "bureaucracy is governmental officialism or inflexible routine. " Roget's Thesaurus gives equally demeaning synonyms for bureaucracy: "officialism", "officiousness", and "red tape". " Red tape " is a derisive term for excessive Regulation or rigid conformity to formal rules that is considered redundant or bureaucratic and hinders or prevents

Austrian School Analysis of Bureaucracy

The analysis of bureaucracy by the Austrian school reflects its characteristic focus on economics, and emphasizes the distinction between bureaucratic management and profit management. The Austrian School, also known as the “ Vienna School ” or the “ Psychological School ” is a heterodox school of economics that advocates ^[4]

Current academic debates

Modern academic research has debated the extent to which elected officials can control their bureaucratic agents. Because bureaucrats have more information than elected officials about what they are doing and what they should be doing, bureaucrats might have the ability to implement policies or regulations that go against the public interest. In the American context, these concerns led to the "Congressional abdication" hypotheses--the claim that Congress had abdicated its authority over public policy to appointed bureaucrats.

Theodore Lowi initiated this debate by concluding in a 1979 book that the U. S. Congress does not exercise effective oversight of bureaucratic agencies. Instead, policies are made by "iron triangles", consisting of interest groups, appointed bureaucrats, and Congressional subcommittees (who, according to Lowi, were likely to have more extreme views than the Congress as a whole). In United States politics, the iron triangle is a term used by Political scientists to describe the Policy -making relationship between the Legislature An interest group (also advocacy group, lobby group, pressure group or special interest group) is an organized collection of people who seek A Congressional subcommittee in the United States Congress is a subdivision of a United States Congressional committee that considers specified matters and reports ^[5] It is thought that since 1979 interest groups have taken a large role and now do not only effect bureaucracy, but also the money in congress. The idea of "iron triangles" has since evolved to "iron hexagons" and then to a "hollow sphere. "

The relationships between the Legislatures, the Interest Groups, Bureaucrats, and the general public all have an effect on each other. Without one of these pieces the entire structure would completely change. This relationship is considered "mu", or such that not one single piece can describe or control the entire process. The public votes in the legislatures and the interest groups provide information, but the legislature and bureaucrats also have an effect on the interest groups and the public. The entire system is codependent on each other.

William Niskanen's earlier (1971) 'budget-maximizing' model complemented Lowi's claims; where Lowi claimed that Congress (and legislatures more generally) failed to exercise oversight, Niskanen argued that rational bureaucrats will always and everywhere seek to increase their budgets, thereby contributing strongly to state growth. William A Niskanen is chairman of the Cato Institute, a position he has held since 1985 following service on President Reagan's Council of Economic Advisers Niskanen went on to serve on the U. S. Council of Economic Advisors under President Reagan, and his model provided a strong underpinning for the worldwide move towards cutbacks of public spending and the introduction of privatization in the 1980s and '90s.

Two branches of theorizing have arisen in response to these claims. The first focuses on bureaucratic motivations; Niskanen's universalist approach was critiqued by a range of pluralist authors who argued that officials' motivations are more public interest-orientated than Niskanen allowed. The bureau-shaping model (put forward by Patrick Dunleavy) also argues against Niskanen that rational bureaucrats should only maximize the part of their budget that they spend on their own agency's operations or give to contractors or powerful interest groups (that are able to organize a flowback of benefits to senior officials). Bureau-shaping is a Rational choice model of Bureaucracy and a response to Budget-maximization model. Patrick Dunleavy (born June 1952 is a professor from the London School of Economics (LSE in the fields of public policy and government For instance, rational officials will get no benefit from paying out larger welfare checks to millions of poor people, since the bureaucrats' own utilities are not improved. Consequently we should expect bureaucracies to significantly maximize budgets in areas like police forces and defense, but not in areas like welfare state spending.

A second branch of responses has focused more on Lowi's claims, asking whether legislatures (and usually the American Congress in particular) can control bureaucrats. This empirical research is motivated by a normative concern: If we wish to believe that we live in a democracy, then it must be true that appointed bureaucrats cannot act contrary to elected officials' interests. Normative has specialized meanings in several academic disciplines Democracy is a form of government in which the supreme power is held completely by the people under a free electoral system (This claim is itself debatable; if we fully trusted elected officials, we would not spend so much time implementing constitutional checks and balances. ^[6])

Within this second branch, scholars have published numerous studies debating the circumstances under which elected officials can control bureaucratic outputs. Most of these studies examine the American case, though their findings have been generalized elsewhere as well. ^[7][8] These studies argue that legislatures have a variety of oversight means at their disposal, and they use many of them regularly. These oversight mechanisms have been classified into two types: "Police patrols" (actively auditing agencies and looking for misbehavior) and "fire alarms" (imposing open administrative procedures on bureaucrats to make it easier for adversely affected groups to detect bureaucratic malfeasance and bring it to the legislature's attention). ^[9]

A third concept of self-interested bureaucracy and its effect on the production of public goods has been forwarded by Faizul Latif Chowdhury. In Economics, a public good is a good that is non-rivaled and non-excludable. Faizul Latif Chowdhury (ফয়জুল লতিফ চৌধুরী (born June 3 1959) is a career civil servant from Bangladeshi currently In contrast to Niskanen and Dunleavy, who primarily focused on the self-interested behaviour of only the top-level bureaucrats involved in policy making, Chowdhury in his thesis submitted to the London School of Economics in 1997 drew attention to the impact of the low level civil servants whose rent-seeking behaviour pushes up the cost of production of public goods. The London School of Economics and Political Science, more commonly referred to as The London School of Economics or LSE, is a specialist college of the Particularly, it was shown with reference to the tax officials how rent-seeking by them causes loss in government revenue^[10]. Chowdhury’s model of rent-seeking bureaucracy captures the case of administrative corruption whereby public money is directly expropriated by public servants in general.

Sources

• 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 [2] and Engels discusses the origins of the state here: [3]
• 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.

References

External links

• Abstracts of academic books and articles about bureaucracy
• Kevin R. Kosar, "What Ought a Bureaucrat Do?" Claremont. org, (A review piece that ponders the values that should guide bureaucrats in their work. )
• Corrupt Bureaucracy and Privatization of Tax Enforcement in Bangladesh by Faizul Latif Chowdhury

See also

• Bureaucrat

A bureaucrat is a member of a Bureaucracy, usually within an institution of the Government.

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