Bureaucracy defined

This is a system of authority, men, offices, and methods that the government uses to carry out its programs. While the term is often used cynically, it refers to a system of complex organization, made up of vast number of technical and hierarchal roles, used to carry out policies made by others in large scale population.

Nature of Bureaucracy

The Word bureaucracy is derived from the French word “bureau” which means office and Greek word “kratos”, which means strength, power and mastery. It is the exercise of power by officials appointed by the top leadership of government. Bureaucracy has been defined as a specific form of social organizations for administrative purposes and for dealing with the activities of a large number of people in a way similar to the family, a social club or the church. Bureaucracy is thus looked upon as an administrative and social instrument in a political community. In a narrow sense, it refers to civil service, including the military. Blan (1996) described the bureaucratic organization as a type that is designed to accomplish large-scale administrative tasks by systematically coordinating the works of many individuals. Thus, it may be asserted that the bureaucracy is the sum total of all administrative agencies of government. Through this institution the resources of the country are best rationalized and transferred into programs and projects toward attaining the goals of development.

Principles of Bureaucracy According to Weber

1. A formal hierarchical structure

Each level controls the levels below and is controlled by the level above. A formal hierarchy is the basis of central planning and centralized decision making.

A bureaucracy is set up with clear chains of command so that everyone has a boss. At the top of the organization is a chief who overseas the entire bureaucracy.

2. Management by formalized rules.

Controlling by rules allows decision made at high levels to be executed consistently by all lower levels.

Also called the Standard Operating procedure. SOP informs workers about how to handle tasks and situations. Everybody always follows the same procedures to increase efficiency and predictability so that the organization will produce similar results in similar circumstances. SOP can sometimes make bureaucracy move slowly because new procedures must be developed as circumstances change.

3. Organization through specialization.

Work is done by specialists, and people are organized into units based on the type of work they do or skills they have.

4. The up-focused and in-focused mission

If the mission is described as up-focused,” then the organizations purpose is to serve the stockholders, the board, or whatever agency empowered it. If the mission is to serve the organization itself, and those within it, then the mission is in-focused.

5. Purposely impersonal

The idea is to treat all employees equally and clients equally, and not be influenced by individual differences.

6. Employment based on technical qualifications

Bureaucrats specialize in one area of the agency in one area of the issue their agency covers. This allows efficiency because the specialist does what he or she knows best, and then passes the matter along to another specialist.

Values of Bureaucracy

1. Effectiveness

2. Efficiency

3. Responsibility

4. Equality

5. Permanence

6. Stability

Goals of Bureaucracy

1. A bureaucracy that is accountable to the people.

The influence exercised by the bureaucracy in the making and implementing of policy makes it necessary to view the bureaucracy in explicitly political terms. The ideals of impartial and expert decision making notwithstanding, bureaucratic agencies and the individuals that staff them function within highly political contexts. Recognition of this context has led to the creation of various means of making bureaucracies accountable via oversight and other kinds of checks on the bureaucracy's freedom to act.

The broad array of actors and entities involved in monitoring the bureaucracy underlines the degree of political maneuvering to which bureaucratic agencies are subject. Individual bureaucratic departments and agencies must enjoy political support from various constituencies if they are to survive and grow - that is, if agencies are to maintain funding, legislative approval, and public support. Consequently, the bureaucracy as a whole is necessarily engaged in politics as well as in policy. The link between accountability and politics is one of the main factors grounding the ideal conceptions of the rational-legal bureaucracy discussed in. Politics does not make it impossible to have a neutral, expert, non-partisan bureaucracy.

2. Effective and Efficient Administration of the bureaucracy.

Whether an organization is “efficient” cannot be defined in any absolute sense, but only relative to feasible alternatives. Therefore, it is reasonable to conclude that a large bureaucratic organization is efficient if it manages to thrive in a competitive sector; that is, a sector with easy entry of organizations with different decision-making structures. For if potential entrants were more efficient than the bureaucratic organizations, they would enter the sector and out-compete the bureaucracies.

Banks, oil companies, and manufacturers of large building equipment, to take a few examples, are in industries without major artificial restrictions on entry of competitors. Large bureaucratic firms, such as Caterpillar, JPMorgan Chase, and Exxon, persist profitably in these industries, sometimes alongside much smaller firms, like small banks, small equipment companies, and wildcat oil drillers that are generally more nimble. The persistence of these large bureaucratic companies suggests that their net advantages, taking into account their greater rigidity, are sufficiently great to enable them to survive the competition of smaller and more flexible firms. This is an application of the “Survival Principle” approach to efficiency developed decades ago by the Nobel economist George Stigler.

Government bureaucracies, by contrast, are often in non-competitive situations since other organizations may not be allowed to compete directly against them. The military, for example, is a huge bureaucracy that faces no competition in fighting, which means that it is hard to find a way to measure its degree of efficiency. State-owned enterprises in China often face no direct competition because of

laws giving them monopoly power over their sectors. Still, one can try to judge the efficiency of these government organizations by comparing their productivity against that of foreign private firms in the same industry, or in the Chinese case, against private Chinese firms in other more competitive sectors.

Some government agencies do face direct competition from private organizations or from other government agencies. For example, the social security bureau competes to some extent against companies that invest funds from IRA accounts, the CIA competes against the FBI in collecting information, and federal agencies face some competition from state and local agencies. In addition, elections may be partly decided on claims about which candidates can help organize various government sectors more efficiently.

This competition is often very useful in improving the efficiency of the government agencies. However, it is usually weaker and less direct than the competition faced by private firms in many industries. That is why the bureaucracies of large private firms tend to be more efficient than the bureaucracies of related government agencies, although I repeat comparing efficiency across sectors is not easy.

FOR building a modern state effective public administration is considered as the key. State building needs decisions of ruling authorities to be readily translated into effective policies and programs. Sustained progress based on the full utilisation of modern science and technology needs effective administrative capacity. In Bangladesh, whose aim is to achieve the goal of providing substantial benefit for the common people, a level of administrative capacity must be attained. Thus, establishing an effective bureaucracy is essential for attaining the goal of Digital Bangladesh.

Effective bureaucracy is wise and sound personnel development. Personnel administration is an extremely difficult art. The calibre of any organisation is primarily determined by the quality and character of the people within it. It needs blending of universal principles and indigenous culture considerations to build an effective public administration.

The goal of administrative development is primarily to provide citizens with services. Often, little attention is paid to developing extractive capabilities, particularly with respect to taxing, either with rural peasantry or wealthy associates of the ruling classes. This phenomenon is clearly evident in Bangladesh. In the western world development of bureaucratic structures was intimately linked with the problems of finance and taxation. Governments were able to justify increases in their capacity to extract resources on the ground of compelling demands of war and military threat to their societies.

Most of the developing countries have experienced colonialism. The emphasis of European colonial rule was on establishing extractive capabilities, furthering law and order, and presenting an impersonal concern for administration of justice. In many non-colonial developing countries the problem is in establishing a strong administrative service to give the state a firmer and more stable form.

Confusion over administrative norms in many developing countries, including Bangladesh, has led to a debate over the extent to which the classic model of bureaucracy (as described by Max Weber) is relevant for guiding administrative development in the developing countries. Some hold that there is a need for raising the level of administrative professionalism.

Some others consider Weber's model, as an abstraction, which has never been and never should be realised by any effective bureaucracy. Thus, efforts to persuade civil services of the developing countries to adhere to Weberian standards is only likely to produce greater bureaucratic inefficiency and inertia.

Functions of Bureaucracy

The main function of bureaucracy in any part of the world is to implement the policies of the sitting government with full commitment and devotion.

The basic idea behind the formation of bureaucratic structures was to provide ‘permanent’ government in the sense that bureaucrats kept running the system for the larger benefit of the people, as they were and are civil servants.

Political executive in the form of politicians could come and go but the bureaucrats stayed on to look after the working of the governments. So their job has never been the formulation of policy. They do help the political leadership in policy-making but never make policies

themselves. It is within the sole domain of the politicians to formulate policies as their mandate stems from their being elected representative of people.

Promote the public good (National Institutes of Health, Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation)

Protect the nation(Armed forces, Coast Guard, Central Intelligence Agency)

Sustain a strong economySecurities and Exchange Commission

Provide research and information to the president. Provide research and information to Congress The bureaucracy provides necessary administrative functions, like conducting examinations,

issuing permits and licenses, and collecting fees.(Essentially, it handles the paperwork of everyday government operations. Anyone who has a driver's license has come face-to-face with bureaucratic administration through the required written and behind-the-wheel exams, learning permits, fees at all stages, and finally applying for and receiving the driver's license itself.)

Bureaucracy makes agencies accountable.

Ex. (The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is the audit, evaluation, and investigative arm of the United States Congress. It is responsible for ensuring that government agencies are held accountable. The GAO's auditors conduct not only financial audits, but also engage in a wide assortment of performance audits.)

Bureaucracy

Submitted by:

Lorie Jane Banez

Mirela Verzosa

Leah Mae Wandas

BA POLITICAL SCIENCE IV

Submitted to:

Dr. Marie Rose Q. Rabang

Instructor