Bureaucracies have helped shape our government since the days of the Constitution. The federal bureaucracy is the thousands of federal government agencies and institutions that implement and administer federal laws and programs. Bureaucracies were originally created in order to have rule among agencies. The term “bureaucracy” is one that we use almost every day, because we are faced with it so often. The aim of the bureaucrat is to apply uniform rules to uniform cases, to work by a recognized code.
There are many types of bureaucracies. Bureaucracies exist for virtually anything, including the US Postal Service, The Environmental Protection Agency and the DMV. Though there have been and still are plenty of ineffective bureaucracies, there have also been some very effective ones. Among the most successful bureaucracies include The Manhattan Project and the urban planners of postwar Germany and the Victorian public health commissions as well as the public works.
The benefits of bureaucracy make it attractive to many. Increased efficiency can lead to better medical care, better traffic control, a better economy, and all sorts of benefits which make life run smoothly. Bureaucrats can stand out against the partisan influence of connections and kinship and the corruptions of threat and bribery. Bureaucracy is a powerful bulwark against revolution, subversion and over-enthusiasm. It can protect scarce resources, allocate wealth more fairly and protect the weak from the strong. Bureaucratic regulations and rules help ensure that things are running smoothly. For example, it ensures that the FDA takes appropriate precautions to safeguard the health of Americans while it is approving a new medication.
The bureaucracy disapproves of all rule breaking, and tries to prevent all forms of corruption. It thrives on rule making and attempts to make provision for every kind of situation, tries to prevent individuals in the group from exercising too much personal power. However, there are also drawbacks to the bureaucracy which make it unfavorable to many. As the rules multiply, it becomes so difficult to do anything that one has to cheat or break the rules in order to survive. Indeed, since the rules often conflict with each other and whatever one does breaks some rule so it is a question of choosing between illegalities. Bureaucracies ultimately present a breeding ground for dysfunction. Loss of focus on goals can lead to competitiveness and distrust among departments, refusal to respond to changes and crises, wastefulness and lack of effective coordination. Another one of the major complaints of bureaucracies is the amount of paperwork associated with it. Just think about all the paperwork you have to fill out when you go to the DMV or filling out an application for a government student loan. Though there are some efficient bureaucracy examples, many governments and organizations still have a lot of work to do in order to achieve better results.
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