Bureaucracy

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. In practice the interpretation and execution of
policy can lead to informal influence.
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. 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 formal
4. informal networks that connect organizational
actors to one another through flows of
information and patterns of cooperation.
Examples of everyday bureaucracy include governments,
armed forces, corporation, non governmental organization
(NGOs), hospitals courts, ministries and schools.
Max Weber has probably been one of the most influential
users of the word in its social science sense. 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 several different years between
1818 and 1860, prior to Weber’s birth in 1864.
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. According to his terminology, bureaucracy is part of
legal domination. 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.
Thank You