BUREAUCRACY

Bureacracy
• “Bureaucracy”: the term was coined in
18th-century France
• Literally means: “power of the desk”
• Power of the person behind the desk
– “bureaucrat”
• 3 meanings of the word:
o A form of social organization
o A social class
o Red tape, bad government
(bureaucratism)

Public Administration Report • Bureaucracy

Bureaucracy
• Many human tasks require the use of
authority systems, which rely on the
method of command, rather than
exchange
• Complex tasks requiring coordination
• Divide a complex task into simpler tasks
• Assign different tasks to different people

Public Administration Report • Bureaucracy

Bureaucracy as a Social Organization
• Specialization of tasks (division of
labour)
• Simplicity of individual responsibilities
• Coordination from the top
• Stability of assignments and authority
• The organization as an end in itself
• No ideal structure of administration;
bureaucracy always needs reform
- Charles Lindblom Politics and Markets

Public Administration Report • Bureaucracy

Max Weber definition of Bureaucracy
• Division of tasks must be carefully defined
• The tasks must be simple
• Decisions must be made on the basis of rules, not
personal motives (routine, impersonal,
mechanistic administration)
• Personnel must be selected on the basis of merit
and competence, not patronage
• Incentives: job and income security for those
competently performing their tasks
• A disciplined hierarchy of authority
• How to make administration efficient is a
perennial and major preoccupation - in both
public and private sectors

Public Administration Report • Bureaucracy

Bureaucracy
• Bureaucracy’s behaviour is constantly shaped by at
least 4 different types of forces:
• Ruling elites (the party in power, head of state,
etc.)
• Powerful private interests
• Self-interests of bureaucracy
• Interests of society as a whole (public interests)
• For the sake of efficiency, bureaucracy needs to have
autonomy to perform its tasks in a neutral, rule-
based fashion
• Bureaucracy needs to be under public control

Public Administration Report • Bureaucracy

Bureaucracy
• A functioning, developed democracy is a key
variable
• It makes societal control of bureaucracy possible
o The more democracy, the more likely it is that
bureaucracy will serve the public interest
o Absence of democracy produces a state
dominated by the bureaucrats colluding with
private interests for mutual benefit at the
expense of society
• Extreme examples from the 20th century:
o Left-wing (communist) and right-wing (fascist)
totalitarian regimes

Public Administration Report • Bureaucracy

Sources of Bureaucratic Power
• Capacity for self-presevation
• Possession of specialized knowledge
• Role in policy-making
• Interaction with elected officials and
interest groups
o bureaucratic pluralism
o representative bureaucracy
• Corruption (use of public office for private
gain)

Public Administration Report • Bureaucracy

Parkinson’s Law
Workexpand to accomodate the time for its
completion

Public Administration Report • Bureaucracy

Peter Principle
The Peter Principle is a concept in 
management theory in which the selection
of a candidate for a position is based on the
candidate's performance in their current role
rather than on abilities relevant to the
intended role. Thus, employees only stop
being promoted once they can no longer
perform effectively, and "managers rise to
the level of their incompetence."

Public Administration Report • Bureaucracy