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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bureaucracy | 6/6 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bureaucracy | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T15:50:13.694575+00:00 | kb-cron |
Constitutional values including democracy are arguments for opposition to democratic backsliding by bureaucracies. Democracies tend to be bureaucratic, with numerous civil servants and regulatory agencies with devolved power. On occasion a group might seize control of a bureaucratic state, as the Nazis did in Germany in the 1930s. 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 an adequate response to the challenge posed by bureaucratic power within democratic governance. One approach to addressing this issue rejects the idea that bureaucracy has any role at all in a true 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. Thus, 19th century British writers frequently referred to bureaucracy as the "Continental nuisance," because their democracy was resistant to it, in their point of view. 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.
== See also == Adhocracy – Organization type characterized by minimal structure Anarchy – Society without rulers Franz Kafka – Austrian and Czech writer (1883–1924) Machinery of government – Interconnected structures and processes of government Michel Crozier – French sociologist (1922–2013) Outline of organizational theory – Overview of concepts related to organizational theory Power (social and political) – Ability to influence the behaviour of others Red tape – Idiom for excessively bureaucratic procedures or regulations Requisite organization Technocracy – Form of government ruled by experts
== References ==
== 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 Cornell, Agnes, Carl Henrik Knutsen, and Jan Teorell. "Bureaucracy and Growth". Comparative Political Studies 53.14 (2020): 2246–2282. online 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. Kingston, Ralph. Bureaucrats and Bourgeois Society: Office Politics and Individual Credit, 1789–1848. 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 and Engels discusses the origins of the state in Origins of the Family, marxists.org Ludwig von Mises, Bureaucracy, 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.