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Although the concept of bureaucracy has several meanings, it is technically "rule by bureau" or government by official agency. In the 20th century, it often has negative connotations of inefficiency, complexity, unresponsiveness, undemocratic and elitist governmental, or private organizations. So to call someone or some state "bureaucratic" usually is a criticism of "red tape," complex regulations, uncooperative officials, and general ineffectiveness.

Bureaucracy is a fairly recent development in Western governments, though Eastern regimes such as the Ottoman Empire and China had a highly bureaucratic state for centuries. Generally, the larger and more complex a country or agency, the more bureaucratic it becomes. So, for example, the Roman Catholic Church (or at least its administrative center, the Vatican) is often seen as characterized by bureaucracy because of its large, worldwide organization.

Max Weber, the leading modern thinker on bureaucracy, claimed that as most organizations (states, businesses, political parties, universities, labor unions, hospitals, etc.) became more complex and large, they would inevitably become more bureaucratic. Weber, a German sociologist, identified several traits in the ideal bureaucracy: (1) hierarchy (ranks of authority); (2) impersonality (treatment of people is uniform regardless of who the clients is); (3) continuity (officials work as full-time, professional, salaried experts); and (4) merit (employment and advancement are according to established standards such as education, experience, and performance, not personal connections or arbitrary favoritism). The professional, competent, fair administrators produced by such a bureaucracy were seen by many in the 19th-century European and American worlds as an improvement over the arbitrary, incompetent, dictatorial rule of hereditary princes or party bosses. The development of the civil service in those countries was seen as creating a clean, honest, efficient public service out of the incompetent, corrupt, and ineffective rule of ordinary citizens. This contempt for non-experts often makes the bureaucracy a target for public scorn and periodic attacks by politicians and common people. In the United States, government bureaucracy is often contrasted with the efficiency of the private, business sector, and conservatives often try to "cut back" the bureaucracy through budget cuts and public personnel reductions. Attempts at "privatization" of public programs (welfare, prisons, education, housing) are often appealed to as less bureaucratic than government programs.

In general, American Democrats and Liberals, who favor more federal government regulation, are less critical of the state bureaucracy, while Republicans often attack the bureaucracy and the taxes required to operate them.

Recent organization theory challenges the claims of bureaucracy by asserting that smaller organizations (and individuals) are more efficient than large organizations, that hierarchy can reduce the flow of information and creative innovations, that specialization can foster inflexibility, and that impersonal, uniform rules can be inhumane.

Democratic criticism of bureaucracy usually centers around the loss of popular control of government to administrative experts and the relative impotence of short-term, elected representatives when compared to permanent career civil servants. Attempts to control the bureaucracy range from such open access laws as the Freedom of Information Act (allowing ordinary citizens access to government records) and legal procedures guaranteeing individual private rights against bureaucratic fiat...

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