bureaucracy
Sign in to saveBureaucracy ( ) is a system of organization where laws or regulatory authority are implemented by civil servants (non-elected officials). Historically, a bureaucracy was a government administration managed by departments staffed with non-elected officials. Today, bureaucracy is the administrative system governing any large institution, whether publicly owned or privately owned. The public administration in many jurisdictions is an example of bureaucracy, as is any centralized hierarchical structure of an institution, including corporations, societies, nonprofit organizations, and clubs.
AI overview
A bureaucracy is an organizational system where laws and rules are carried out by appointed officials rather than elected leaders, typically arranged in a centralized hierarchy with different departments. Today, bureaucracies exist not just in government but in any large institution—including corporations, nonprofits, and clubs—and they matter because they're how complex organizations actually implement their policies and decisions.
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Article
24 sectionsContents
- Etymology and usage
- History
- Ancient
- Ancient China
- Ancient Rome
- Modern
- Persia
- Russia
- Ashanti Empire
- United Kingdom
- France
- The industrialized/globalized world
- Theories
- Karl Marx
- Leon Trotsky
- John Stuart Mill
- Woodrow Wilson
- Ludwig von Mises
- Robert K. Merton
- Elliott Jaques
- Bureaucracy and democracy
- See also
- References
- Further reading
Bureaucracy ( ) is a system of organization where laws or regulatory authority are implemented by civil servants (non-elected officials). Historically, a bureaucracy was a government administration managed by departments staffed with non-elected officials. Today, bureaucracy is the administrative system governing any large institution, whether publicly owned or privately owned. The public administration in many jurisdictions is an example of bureaucracy, as is any centralized hierarchical structure of an institution, including corporations, societies, nonprofit organizations, and clubs.
There are two key dilemmas in bureaucracy. The first dilemma relates to whether bureaucrats should be autonomous or directly accountable to their political masters. The second dilemma relates to bureaucrats' responsibility to follow preset rules, and what degree of latitude they may have to determine appropriate solutions for circumstances that are unaccounted for in advance.