Bureaucracy

The term bureaucracy (/bjʊəˈrɒkrəsi/) refers to a body of non-elected governing officials as well as to an
administrative policy-making group.[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][4] The public
administration in many jurisdictions and sub-jurisdictions exemplifies bureaucracy, but so does any
centralized hierarchical structure of an institution, e.g. hospitals, academic entities, business firms,
professional societies, social clubs, etc.

There are two key dilemmas in bureaucracy. The first dilemma revolves around whether bureaucrats should
be autonomous or directly accountable to their political masters.[5] The second dilemma revolves around
bureaucrats' behavior strictly following the law or whether they have leeway to determine appropriate
solutions for varied circumstances.[5]

Various commentators have argued for the necessity of bureaucracies in modern society. The German
sociologist Max Weber (1864–1920) 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, to maximize efficiency, and to 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.[6][7]

Etymology and usage

The term "bureaucracy" originated in the French language: it combines the French word bureau – desk or
office – with the Greek word κράτος (kratos) – rule or political power.[8] The French economist Jacques
Claude Marie Vincent de Gournay (1712–1759) coined the word in the mid-18th century.[9] Gournay never
wrote the term down but a letter from a contemporary later quoted him:

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 (1723–1807)[10]

The first known English-language use dates to 1818[8] with Irish novelist Lady Morgan referring to the
apparatus used by the British to subjugate their Irish colony as "the Bureaucratie, or office tyranny, by
which Ireland has so long been governed".[11] By the mid-19th century the word appeared in a more
neutral sense, referring to a system of public administration in which offices were held by unelected career
officials. In this context "bureaucracy" was seen as a distinct form of management, often subservient to a
monarchy.[12] In the 1920s the German sociologist Max Weber expanded the definition to include any
system of administration conducted by trained professionals according to fixed rules.[12] Weber saw
bureaucracy as a relatively positive development; however, by 1944 the Austrian economist Ludwig von
Mises opined in the context of his experience in the Nazi regime that the term bureaucracy was "always
applied with an opprobrious connotation",[13] and by 1957 the American sociologist Robert Merton
suggested that the term "bureaucrat" had become an "epithet, a Schimpfwort" in some circumstances.[14]
The word "bureaucracy" is also used in politics and government with a disapproving tone to disparage
official rules that make it difficult to do things. In workplaces, the word is used very often to blame
complicated rules, processes, and written work that make it hard to get something done.[15] Socio-
bureaucracy would then refer to certain social influences that may affect the function of a society.[16]

In modern usage, modern bureaucracy has been defined as comprising four features:[17]

1. hierarchy (clearly defined spheres of competence and divisions of labor)

2. continuity (a structure where administrators have a full-time salary and advance within the
structure)
3. impersonality (prescribed rules and operating rules rather than arbitrary actions)
4. expertise (officials are chosen according to merit, have been trained, and hold access to
knowledge)

Bureaucracy in a political theory is mainly a centralized form of management and tends to be differentiated
from adhocracy, in which management tends more to decentralization.

History

Ancient

Although the term "bureaucracy" first originated in the mid-18th

century, organized and consistent administrative systems existed
much earlier. The development of writing (c. 3500 BC) and the use
of documents was critical to the administration of this system, and
the first definitive emergence of bureaucracy occurred in ancient
Sumer, where an emergent class of scribes used clay tablets to
administer the harvest and to allocate its spoils.[18] Ancient Egypt
also had a hereditary class of scribes that administered the civil-
service bureaucracy.[19] Students competed in imperial
examinations to receive a position in
In China, when the Qin dynasty (221–206 BC) unified China under the bureaucracy of Imperial China.
the Legalist system, the emperor assigned administration to
dedicated officials rather than nobility, ending feudalism in China,
replacing it with a centralized, bureaucratic government. The form of government created by the first
emperor and his advisors was used by later dynasties to structure their own government.[20][21] Under this
system, the government thrived, as talented individuals could be more easily identified in the transformed
society. The Han dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD) established a complicated bureaucracy based on the
teachings of Confucius, who emphasized the importance of ritual in a family, in relationships, and in
politics.[22] With each subsequent dynasty, the bureaucracy evolved. In 165 BC, Emperor Wen introduced
the first method of recruitment to civil service through examinations, while Emperor Wu (r. 141–87 BC),
cemented the ideology of Confucius into mainstream governance installed a system of recommendation and
nomination in government service known as xiaolian, and a national academy[23][24][25] whereby officials
would select candidates to take part in an examination of the Confucian classics, from which Emperor Wu
would select officials.[26]

In the Sui dynasty (581–618) and the subsequent Tang dynasty (618–907) the shi class would begin to
present itself by means of the fully standardized civil service examination system, of partial recruitment of
those who passed standard exams and earned an official degree. Yet recruitment by recommendations to
office was still prominent in both dynasties. It was not until the Song dynasty (960–1279) that the
recruitment of those who passed the exams and earned degrees was given greater emphasis and
significantly expanded.[27] During the Song dynasty (960–1279) the bureaucracy became meritocratic.
Following the Song reforms, competitive examinations took place to determine which candidates qualified
to hold given positions.[28] The imperial examination system lasted until 1905, six years before the Qing
dynasty collapsed, marking the end of China's traditional bureaucratic system.[29]

A hierarchy of regional proconsuls and their deputies administered the Roman Empire. The reforms of
Diocletian (Emperor from 284 to 305) doubled the number of administrative districts and led to a large-scale
expansion of Roman bureaucracy.[30] The early Christian author Lactantius (c. 250 – c. 325) 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."[31] After the
Empire split, the Byzantine Empire developed a notoriously complicated administrative hierarchy, and in
the 20th century the term "Byzantine" came to refer to any complex bureaucratic structure.[32][33]

Modern

Ashanti Empire

The government of the Ashanti Empire is built upon a sophisticated bureaucracy in Kumasi, with separate
ministries which saw to the handling of state affairs. Ashanti's Foreign Office was based in Kumasi. Despite
the small size of the office, it allowed the state to pursue complex negotiations with foreign powers. The
Office was divided into departments that handled Ashanti relations separately with the British, French,
Dutch, and Arabs. Scholars of Ashanti history, such as Larry Yarak and Ivor Wilkes, disagree over the
power of this sophisticated bureaucracy in comparison to the Asantehene. However, both scholars agree
that it was a sign of a highly developed government with a complex system of checks and balances.[34]

United Kingdom

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.[35] 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.[36] Thomas Taylor Meadows, The 18th century Department of
Britain's consul in Guangzhou, argued in his Desultory Notes on Excise developed a sophisticated
the Government and People of China (1847) that "the long duration bureaucracy. Pictured, the Custom
of the Chinese empire is solely and altogether owing to the good House in the City of London.
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.[37] 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".[38][37] This led to implementation of Her Majesty's Civil Service as a systematic,
meritocratic civil service bureaucracy.[39]
In the British civil service, just as it was in China, entrance to the civil service was usually based on a
general education in ancient classics, which similarly gave bureaucrats greater prestige. The Cambridge-
Oxford ideal of the civil service was identical to the Confucian ideal of a general education in world affairs
through humanism.[40] (Well into the 20th century, Classics, Literature, History and Language remained
heavily favoured in British civil service examinations.[41] In the period of 1925–1935, 67 percent of British
civil service entrants consisted of such graduates.[42]) Like the Chinese model's consideration of personal
values, the British model also took personal physique and character into account.[43]

France

Like the British, the development of French bureaucracy was influenced by the Chinese system.[44] 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.[45] 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.[46] Western perception of China
even in the 18th century admired the Chinese bureaucratic system as favourable over European
governments for its seeming meritocracy; Voltaire claimed that the Chinese had "perfected moral science"
and François Quesnay advocated an economic and political system modeled after that of the Chinese.[47]
The governments of China, Egypt, Peru and Empress Catherine II were regarded as models of Enlightened
Despotism, admired by such figures as Diderot, D'Alembert and Voltaire.[45]

Napoleonic France adopted this meritocracy system [46] 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.[48]

French civil service examinations adopted in the late 19th century were also heavily based on general
cultural studies. These features have been likened to the earlier Chinese model.[43]

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.[12]

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.[49]

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.[50][51] In the business world, managers like Jack Welch
gained fortune and renown by eliminating bureaucratic structures inside corporations.[52] 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.[53]

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. By contrast, Marx 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."[54]

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."[55]

Max Weber

The German sociologist Max Weber The fully developed bureaucratic apparatus compares with
was the first to formally study other organisations exactly as does the machine with the non-
bureaucracy and his works led to the mechanical modes of production.
popularization of this term. [57] In his
essay Bureaucracy,[1] (https://www.
academia.edu/31803869/_Bureaucra –Max Weber[56]
cy_by_Max_Weber_Translated_and
_Edited_by_Tony_Waters_and_Dag
mar_Waters),[58] 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[6][59][60]

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.[59]
Development of communication and transportation technologies make more efficient administration
possible, and democratization and rationalization of culture results in demands for equal treatment.[59]

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.[61] Furthermore, he saw it as the key process in the ongoing
rationalization of Western society.[6][62] 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.[6][7] Weber's critical study of the bureaucratization of society became one of the
most enduring parts of his work.[6][62] 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" or "Weberian bureaucracy".[63] It is debated among social scientists whether Weberian
bureaucracy contributes to economic growth.[64]

Woodrow Wilson

Writing as an academic while a professor at Bryn Mawr College, Woodrow Wilson's essay The Study of
Administration[65] 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 a foundation for the study of public administration in
America.[66]

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."[13]

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".[14]

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.[67]

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).[68][69][70]
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.

Bureaucracy and democracy

Like every modern state, a liberal democracy is highly bureaucratized, with numerous sizable organizations
filled with career civil servants. Some of those bureaucracies have a substantial amount of influence to
preserve the current political system because they are primarily focused on defending the country and the
state from threats from both within and beyond. Since these institutions frequently operate independently
and are mostly shielded from politics, they frequently have no affiliation with any particular political party
or group. For instance, loyal British civil officials work for both the Conservative and Labour parties.
However, on occasion a group might seize control of a bureaucratic state, as the Nazis did in Germany in
the 1930s.[71]

Although numerous ideals associated with democracy, such as equality, participation, and individuality, are
in stark contrast to those associated with modern bureaucracy, specifically hierarchy, specialization, and
impersonality, political theorists did not recognize bureaucracy as a threat to democracy. Yet democratic
theorists still have not developed a sufficient solution to the problem bureaucratic authority poses to
democratic government.[72]

One answer to this problem is to say that bureaucracy has no place at all in a real democracy. Theorists who
adopt this perspective typically understand that they must demonstrate that bureaucracy does not necessarily
occur in every contemporary society, only in those they perceive to be non-democratic. Because their
democracy was resistant to bureaucracy, nineteenth-century British writers frequently referred to it as the
"Continental nuisance".[72]

According to Marx and other socialist thinkers, the most advanced bureaucracies were those in France and
Germany. However, they argued that bureaucracy was a symptom of the bourgeois state and would vanish
along with capitalism, which gave rise to the bourgeois state. Though clearly not the democracies Marx had
in mind, socialist societies ended up being more bureaucratic than the governments they replaced. Similarly,
after capitalist economies developed the administrative systems required to support their extensive welfare
states, the idea that bureaucracy exclusively exists in socialist governments could scarcely be
maintained.[72]

See also
Adhocracy
Anarchy
Authority
Civil servant
Hierarchical organization
Michel Crozier
Power (social and political)
Public administration
Red tape
Requisite Organization
State (polity)
 Technocracy

References
1. Compare: "Bureaucracy - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary" (ht
tp://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bureaucracy). 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" (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/bureaucracy).
Thefreedictionary.com. Retrieved 26 May 2013.
3. "Bureaucracy Definition" (http://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/bureaucracy.asp#axzz2938h
wENQ). Investopedia. 4 September 2009. Retrieved 26 May 2013.
4. Weber, Max "Bureaucracy" in Weber's Rationalism and Modern Society, translated and
edited by Tony Waters and Dagmar Waters, Palgrave-Macmillan 2015. p. 114
5. Dahlström, Carl; Lapuente, Victor (2022). "Comparative Bureaucratic Politics" (https://www.a
nnualreviews.org/doi/10.1146/annurev-polisci-051120-102543). Annual Review of Political
Science. 25 (1): 43–63. doi:10.1146/annurev-polisci-051120-102543 (https://doi.org/10.114
6%2Fannurev-polisci-051120-102543). ISSN 1094-2939 (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/109
4-2939). S2CID 246605188 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:246605188).
6. Richard Swedberg; Ola Agevall (2005). The Max Weber dictionary: key words and central
concepts (https://books.google.com/books?id=_c3Mcnh8hCgC&pg=PA19). Stanford
University Press. pp. 18–21. ISBN 978-0-8047-5095-0. Retrieved 23 March 2011.
7. George Ritzer, Enchanting a Disenchanted World: Revolutionizing the Means of
Consumption, Pine Forge Press, 2004; ISBN 0-7619-8819-X, Google Print, p. 55 (https://arc
hive.org/details/enchantingdisenc0000ritz_r0g1/page/55)
8. "Bureaucracy" (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bureaucracy). Merriam-Webster
Dictionary (definition). Retrieved 26 May 2013.
9. Riggs, Fred W (1979), "Introduction: Évolution sémantique du terme 'bureaucratie' " (http://un
esdoc.unesco.org/images/0003/000366/036645fo.pdf) [Introduction: semantic evolution of
the 'bureaucracy' term] (PDF), Revue Internationale des Sciences Sociales (in French),
Paris, XXX I (4).
10. J.C.N. Raadschelders (1998). Handbook of Administrative History (https://books.google.com/
books?id=3iSkH1Qf6xsC&pg=PA142). Transaction Publishers. p. 142.
ISBN 9780765807267.
11. Lady Morgan, Sydney (1818). Florence Macarthy (https://archive.org/details/florencemacarth
02morggoog). Henry Colburn. p. 35 (https://archive.org/details/florencemacarth02morggoog/
page/n34). Retrieved 18 November 2014.
12. Beetham, David (1996). Bureaucracy (https://books.google.com/books?id=KtFI15WCr_8C&
pg=PA3). ISBN 978-0816629398. Retrieved 26 May 2013.
13. Ludwig von Mises (1944). Bureaucracy (https://mises.org/etexts/mises/bureaucracy.asp).
Retrieved 12 October 2012.
14. Robert K. Merton (1957). Social Theory and Social Structure (https://web.archive.org/web/20
121227113532/http://www.sociosite.net/topics/texts/merton_bureaucratic_structure.php).
Glencoe, IL;Free Press. pp. 195–206. Archived from the original (http://www.sociosite.net/topi
cs/texts/merton_bureaucratic_structure.php) on 27 December 2012. Retrieved 12 October
2012.
15. "Meaning of bureaucracy in English" (https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/bure
aucracy). Cambridge.org.
16. Wirl, Franz (July 1998). "Socio-economic typologies of bureaucratic corruption and
implications". Journal of Evolutionary Economics. Springer-Verlag. 8 (2): 199–220.
doi:10.1007/s001910050062 (https://doi.org/10.1007%2Fs001910050062).
S2CID 154833892 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:154833892).
17. BARNETT, Michael; FINNEMORE, Marftha (2004). Rules for the World: International
Organizations in Global Politics. Cornell University Press. pp. 17–18. ISBN 978-0-8014-
4090-8. JSTOR 10.7591/j.ctt7z7mx (https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7591/j.ctt7z7mx).
18. Compare: Laurie E. Pearce (1995). "The Scribes and Scholars of Ancient Mesopotamia" (htt
ps://www.academia.edu/562267). In Jack M. Sasson (ed.). Civilizations of the Ancient Near
East. Macmillan Library Reference. pp. 2265–2278. Retrieved 12 March 2014. "Palace
scribes recorded the activities of kings and the affairs of kingdoms in ancient Mesopotamia.
Scribes served a variety of administrative functions, including arrangement and storage of
texts [...], collection of taxes and supervision of workers, and supervision of public buildings
such as granaries. [...] Scribes associated with the temple were not officiants in the temple
cult. They functioned largely in administrative and bureaucratic roles. They received
incoming staples for the temple, including commodities such as grain, fish, wool, and silver.
They traveled to various cities to fulfill official duties, such as the purchase of grain for the
temple complex."
19. Ronald J. Williams (1972). "Scribal Training in Ancient Egypt". Journal of the American
Oriental Society. 92 (2): 214–221. doi:10.2307/600648 (https://doi.org/10.2307%2F600648).
JSTOR 600648 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/600648).
20. "China's First Empire | History Today" (http://www.historytoday.com/michael-loewe/china%E
2%80%99s-first-empire). www.historytoday.com. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/2017
0417235658/http://www.historytoday.com/michael-loewe/china%E2%80%99s-first-empire)
from the original on 17 April 2017. Retrieved 17 April 2017.
21. World and Its Peoples: Eastern and Southern Asia, p. 36
22. Riegel, Jeffrey (3 July 2002). "Confucius" (http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2012/entries/
confucius). In Edward N. Zalta (ed.). The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring
2012 ed.).
23. Michael Loewe 1994 p.. Divination, Mythology and Monarchy in Han China.
https://books.google.com/books?id=m2tmgvB8zisC
24. Creel, H.G. (1949). Confucius: The Man and the Myth. New York: John Day Company. pp.
239–241
Creel, H.G. 1960. pp. 239–241. Confucius and the Chinese Way
Creel, H.G. 1970, What Is Taoism?, 86–87
Xinzhong Yao 2003. p. 231. The Encyclopedia of Confucianism: 2-volume Set.
https://books.google.com/books?id=P-c4CQAAQBAJ&pg=PA231
Griet Vankeerberghen 2001 pp. 20, 173. The Huainanzi and Liu An's Claim to Moral
Authority. https://books.google.com/books?id=zt-vBqHQzpQC&pg=PA20
25. Michael Loewe pp. 145, 148. 2011. Dong Zhongshu, a 'Confucian' Heritage and the
Chunqiu Fanlu. https://books.google.com/books?id=ZQjJxvkY-34C&pg=PA145
26. Edward A Kracke Jr, Civil Service in Early Sung China, 960-1067, p 253
27. Ebrey, Patricia Buckley, Anne Walthall, James Palais. (2006). East Asia: A Cultural, Social,
and Political History. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. ISBN 0-618-13384-4. 145–146.
28. McKnight, Brian E. (15 February 1983). Village and Bureaucracy in Southern Sung China (ht
tps://books.google.com/books?id=SEr8_6LieVMC&pg=PA1). University of Chicago Press.
p. 1. ISBN 978-0-226-56060-1. Retrieved 7 February 2013. "the government of imperial
China still seems in many ways curiously modern and familiar. Bureaucratically organized,
and dominated by a graded civil service led by men selected through competitive
examinations, it was both a model for a precursor of the complex administrations of our
modern world."
29. Wolfgang Franke (1960). The Reform and Abolition of the Traditional Chinese Examination
System (https://books.google.com/books?id=ofvBS7L6slUC&pg=PA69). Harvard Univ Asia
Center. pp. 69–71. ISBN 978-0-674-75250-4.
30. As taken from the Laterculus Veronensis 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.
31. Lactantius. "Chapter 7" (http://people.ucalgary.ca/~vandersp/Courses/texts/lactant/lactpers.ht
ml#VII). On the Manner in which the Persecutors Died.
32. "Byzantine – Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary" (http://www.mer
riam-webster.com/dictionary/byzantine). Merriam-webster.com. 31 August 2012. Retrieved
26 May 2013.
33. Harper, Douglas. "Byzantine" (https://www.etymonline.com/?term=Byzantine). Online
Etymology Dictionary.: "pertaining to Byzantium (q.v., original name of Constantinople,
modern Istanbul), 1770, from Late Latin Byzantinus; originally used of the style of art and
architecture developed there 4c.-5c. C.E.; later in reference to the complex, devious, and
intriguing character of the royal court of Constantinople (1937)."
34. Chioma, Unini (15 March 2020). "Historical Reminisciences: Great Empires Of Yore (Part 15)
By Mike Ozekhome, SAN" (https://thenigerialawyer.com/historical-reminisciences-great-empi
res-of-yore-part-15-by-mike-ozekhome-san/). TheNigeriaLawyer. Retrieved 30 May 2020.
35. "3 Public finance in China and Britain in the long eighteenth century" (http://www.lse.ac.uk/e
conomicHistory/workingPapers/2012/WP167.pdf) (PDF). Retrieved 17 December 2012.
36. Linda Weiss; John Hobson (1995). States and Economic Development: A Comparative
Historical Analysis (https://books.google.com/books?id=IPxlQgAACAAJ). Wiley. ISBN 978-
0745614571. Retrieved 7 February 2013.
37. Bodde, Derke. "China: A Teaching Workbook" (http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/song/readings/i
nventions_ideas.htm). Columbia University.
38. Full text of the Northcote-Trevelyan Report (http://www.civilservant.org.uk/northcotetrevelyan.
pdf) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20141222072511/http://www.civilservant.org.uk/n
orthcotetrevelyan.pdf) 22 December 2014 at the Wayback Machine
39. Walker, David (9 July 2003). "Fair game" (https://www.theguardian.com/society/2003/jul/09/p
ublicsector.guardiansocietysupplement). The Guardian. London, UK. Retrieved 9 July 2003.
40. Joseph Richmond Levenson (1964). Confucian China and Its Modern Fate, Volume 1
(revised ed.). University of California Press. pp. 17–18.
41. Fry, Geoffrey Kingdon (1969). Statesmen in Disguise: The Changing Role of the
Administrative Class of the British Home Civil Service 1853–1965. Palgrave Macmillan UK.
pp. 95–96. ISBN 978-1-349-00034-0.
42. Finer, Herman (1937). The British Civil Service (https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.4
58787). The Fabian Society / George Allen & Unwin. p. 92 (https://archive.org/details/in.erne
t.dli.2015.458787/page/n91).
43. Rung, Margaret C. (2002). Servants of the State: Managing Diversity & Democracy in the
Federal Workforce, 1933-1953 (https://books.google.com/books?id=ucVgkbmqynUC).
University of Georgia Press. pp. 8, 200–201. ISBN 0820323624.
44. Mark W. Huddleston; William W. Boyer (1996). The Higher Civil Service in the United States:
Quest for Reform. University of Pittsburgh Pre. p. 15. ISBN 0822974738.
45. Henry Jacoby (1 January 1973). The Bureaucratization of the World (https://archive.org/detail
s/bureaucratizatio0000jaco). University of California Press. p. 40 (https://archive.org/details/b
ureaucratizatio0000jaco/page/40)–43. ISBN 978-0-520-02083-2. Retrieved 16 September
2013.
46. Schwarz (1996), p. 229
47. Schwarz (1996), p. 232
48. Raadschelders, Jos C. N. (2000). Handbook of Administrative History - Paper - J.C.N.
Raadschelders (https://books.google.com/books?id=3iSkH1Qf6xsC&pg=PA142). ISBN 978-
0765807267. Retrieved 26 May 2013.
49. Michael Voslensky (1984). Nomenklatura: The Soviet Ruling Class (https://archive.org/detail
s/nomenklaturasovi0000vosl_l7v8) (1st ed.). Doubleday. ISBN 978-0-385-17657-6.
50. "Viewpoints: How did Margaret Thatcher change Britain?" (https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-pol
itics-22076774). BBC News. 13 April 2013.
51. Ronald Reagan (27 October 1964). A Time For Choosing (https://web.archive.org/web/2016
0114170906/http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/reference/timechoosing.html) (Speech).
Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. Archived from the original (http://www.reagan.utexas.ed
u/archives/reference/timechoosing.html) on 14 January 2016. Retrieved 13 March 2014.
52. "Jack Welch's Encore" (https://web.archive.org/web/20100101031942/http://www.businessw
eek.com/1996/44/b34991.htm). Businessweek.com. 14 June 1997. Archived from the
original (http://www.businessweek.com/1996/44/b34991.htm) on 1 January 2010. Retrieved
12 July 2010.
53. Stewart R. Clegg; Martin Harris; Harro Höpfl, eds. (2011). Managing Modernity: Beyond
Bureaucracy? (http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780199563654.do). Oxford University
Press. ISBN 978-0199563654.
54. Karl Marx (1970). "3A" (https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1843/critique-hpr/ch03.
htm). Marx's Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right (1843). Cambridge University Press.
Retrieved 12 October 2012.
55. John Stuart Mill (1861). "VI – Of the Infirmities and Dangers to which Representative
Government is Liable" (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/5669/5669-h/5669-h.htm#2HCH0006).
Considerations on Representative Government. Retrieved 12 October 2012.
56. "Bureaucracy" from Weber’s Rationalism and Modern Society: New Translations on Politics,
Bureaucracy, and Social Stratification. Chapter 6 Edited and Translated by Tony Waters and
Dagmar Waters. Palgrave MacMillan 2015, pp. 73-128 ISBN 978-1137365866
57. Marshall Sashkin; Molly G. Sashkin (28 January 2003). Leadership that matters: the critical
factors for making a difference in people's lives and organizations' success (https://archive.or
g/details/leadershipthatma0000sash). Berrett-Koehler Publishers. p. 52 (https://archive.org/d
etails/leadershipthatma0000sash/page/52). ISBN 978-1-57675-193-0. Retrieved 22 March
2011.
58. 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
59. Kenneth Allan; Kenneth D. Allan (2 November 2005). Explorations in Classical Sociological
Theory: Seeing the Social World (https://archive.org/details/explorationsincl00alla/page/17
2). Pine Forge Press. pp. 172–76 (https://archive.org/details/explorationsincl00alla/page/17
2). ISBN 978-1-4129-0572-5.
60. 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
61. Max Weber (2015) extract (https://books.google.com/books?id=_c3Mcnh8hCgC&pg=PA19&
redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false), books.google.ca; accessed 30 August 2015.
62. George Ritzer (29 September 2009). Contemporary Sociological Theory and Its Classical
Roots: The Basics (https://books.google.com/books?id=pX6pPwAACAAJ). McGraw-Hill.
pp. 38–42. ISBN 978-0-07-340438-7. Retrieved 22 March 2011.
63. Liesbet Hooghe (2001). The European Commission and the integration of Europe: images of
governance (https://books.google.com/books?id=e15KnRiGipYC&pg=PA40). Cambridge
University Press. pp. 40–. ISBN 978-0-521-00143-4. Retrieved 24 March 2011.
64. Cornell, Agnes; Knutsen, Carl Henrik; Teorell, Jan (2020). "Bureaucracy and Growth" (https://
doi.org/10.1177%2F0010414020912262). Comparative Political Studies. 53 (14): 2246–
2282. doi:10.1177/0010414020912262 (https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0010414020912262).
ISSN 0010-4140 (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/0010-4140).
65. Woodrow Wilson, "The Study of Administration", Political Science Quarterly, July 1887
66. Christopher Hood (30 March 2000). The Art of the State: Culture, Rhetoric, and Public
Management (https://books.google.com/books?id=ns7wTyXuw5sC). Oxford University
Press. p. 76. ISBN 978-0-19-829765-9. Retrieved 29 January 2019
67. 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 978-0306485541. OCLC 55877281 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/55877281).
68. Elliott., Jaques (1976). A general theory of bureaucracy. London: Heinemann. ISBN 978-
0435824785. OCLC 2089721 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/2089721).
69. "Psychoanalysis Psychotherapy" (http://www.psychoanalysis-and-therapy.com/human_natur
e/free-associations/kirsnerjaques.html). www.psychoanalysis-and-therapy.com. Retrieved
1 March 2018.
70. "In Praise of Hierarchy" (https://hbr.org/1990/01/in-praise-of-hierarchy). Harvard Business
Review. 1 January 1990. Retrieved 1 March 2018.
71. John Mearsheimer (25 September 2018). The Great Delusion:Liberal Dreams and
International Realities. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0300234190.
72. “Bureaucracy and Democracy.” Restoring Responsibility: Ethics in Government, Business,
and Healthcare, by Dennis F. Thompson, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2004, pp.
50–70.

Further reading
Albrow, Martin. Bureaucracy. (London: Macmillan, 1970).
Cheng, Tun-Jen, Stephan Haggard, and David Kang. "Institutions and growth in Korea and
Taiwan: the bureaucracy". in East Asian Development: New Perspectives (Routledge, 2020)
pp. 87-111. online (https://www.stephanhaggard.com/s/Cheng-Haggard-and-Kang-Institution
s-and-growth-in-Korea-and-Taiwan.pdf)
Cornell, Agnes, Carl Henrik Knutsen, and Jan Teorell. "Bureaucracy and Growth".
Comparative Political Studies 53.14 (2020): 2246-2282. online (https://journals.sagepub.co
m/doi/pdf/10.1177/0010414020912262)
Crooks, Peter, and Timothy H. Parsons, eds. Empires and bureaucracy in world history: from
late antiquity to the twentieth century (Cambridge University Press, 2016) online (https://cont
ent.schweitzer-online.de/static/catalog_manager/live/media_files/representation/zd_std_orig
__zd_schw_orig/035/815/999/9781107166035_foreword_pdf_1.pdf).
 Kingston, Ralph. Bureaucrats and Bourgeois Society: Office Politics and Individual Credit,
1789–1848 (https://books.google.com/books/about/Bureaucrats_and_Bourgeois_Society.ht
ml?id=Rx0Q8RgcKREC). Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.
Neil Garston (ed.), Bureaucracy: Three Paradigms. Boston: Kluwer, 1993.
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 (http
s://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1843/critique-hpr/index.htm) and Engels discusses
the origins of the state in Origins of the Family (https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/
1884/origin-family/index.htm), marxists.org
Ludwig von Mises, Bureaucracy (https://mises.org/etexts/mises/bureaucracy.asp), Yale
University Press, 1962. Liberty Fund (2007), ISBN 978-0-86597-663-4
Schwarz, Bill. (1996). The expansion of England: race, ethnicity and cultural history.
Psychology Pres; ISBN 0-415-06025-7.
Watson, Tony J. (1980). Sociology, Work and Industry. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-32165-5.
On Weber

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 978-0-465-00785-1.
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. (https://www.academia.edu/31803869/_Bureaucracy_by_Max
_Weber_Translated_and_Edited_by_Tony_Waters_and_Dagmar_Waters)

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bureaucracy&oldid=1139352358"