A bureaucracy is a way of administratively organizing large
numbers of people who need to work together. Organizations in the public and private
sector, including universities and governments, rely on bureaucracies to function.
The term bureaucracy literally means “rule by desks or offices,” a definition that
highlights the often impersonal character of bureaucracies. Even though
bureaucracies sometimes seem inefficient or wasteful, setting up a bureaucracy helps
ensure that thousands of people work together in compatible ways by defining
everyone’s roles within a hierarchy.
What Bureaucrats Do
Government bureaucrats perform a wide variety of tasks. We often think of
bureaucrats as paper-pushing desk clerks, but bureaucrats fight fires, teach,
and monitor how federal candidates raise money, among other
activities.
The job of a bureaucrat is to implement government policy, to
take the laws and decisions made by elected officials and put them into
practice. Some bureaucrats implement policy by writing rules and regulations,
whereas others administer policies directly to people (such as distributing
small business loans or treating patients at a veterans’ hospital). The task of
running the government, and providing services through policy implementation, is
called public administration.
Bureaucratic Functions
One useful approach to understanding what bureaucrats do is to examine
the actions of different governmental agencies. The following table
summarizes the government’s major functions and provides examples of
agencies that perform those tasks.
FUNCTIONS OF BUREAUCRACIES
|
Function
|
Bureaucratic Agencies
|
| 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 economy | Federal Reserve Bank, Export-Import Bank, Securities
and Exchange Commission |
