Administration and

Bureaucracy
Bureaucracy
Characteristics of
bureaucracy
Functions of
bureaucracy
Problems
Controlling
bureaucrats

Bureaucracy
Bureau=office, cracy=rule.
Modern bureaucracy was first
developed in Prussia in the 18th
century. Organization of public
servants
under
one
framework/universities to train
public servants/ competitive
examination.
France [under Napoleon, 17691821] modified the system by
including hierarchical structure
of offices.
Britain developed competitive
exams for
recruitment.

Bureaucrats/Civil
Servants
Professional body of officials,
permanent, paid and skilled.
Career and non-political
officials.
Expected to work with the
government of the day with
loyalty, consistency and
sincerity.
Experts, in office until they
resign, die or removed for
misconduct, or reach
retirement age.

Characteristics of
Bureaucracy
Weber
[1864-1920]
disliked
bureaucracy, but saw no
means
to
avoid
it.
Bureaucracy represents the
rational-legal authority.
Characteristics
of
bureaucracy:
1. Specialization
Features: specific jobs
clear division of laborown
area
of
competence.
Problems: blind spots
stereotyping.

Characteristics of
Bureaucracy
2. Hierarchy
Features:
supervision
superior-subordinate
relationshipclear line of
command. Problems: lack of
flexibilityconcealment of
mistakes.
3. Formal
Features: formal written
ruleswritten
reports
uniformity, clear standards,
continuity
in
policies.
Problems: hinders individual
initiative and imagination
blind application may not
achieve
organizational
goals.

Characteristics of
Bureaucracy
4. Skilled and trained.
Features: appointment based
on qualification
performance is measured by
specific criteria.
5. Fixed salaries
Features: salaries according
to rank.
6. Impersonality
Features: no ownership of
officeequal treatment to
the publicno personal
consideration. Problems:
alienation among civil
servants.

Characteristics of
Bureaucracy
7. Control and Discipline
Features: superior has control
promotion based on superiors
reportofficial may be
suspended, transferred or
dismissed if the superior is not
satisfied with his/her
performance.

Weberian bureaucracy has been

widely criticized as an ideal type
because in reality, bureaucracy
cannot avoid politics, and
human bureaucrats cannot be
100% impersonal.

Functions of
Bureaucrats
1. Administration
Manage administration
execute and enforce laws
enacted by legislature
implementation of public
policy.
2. Policy Formulation
Policies are made by the
legislature, but formulated by
the bureaucrats. Bureaucrats
provide the details.
European Commission of the
EU is the best example of
government bureaucracy that
formulates policies.

Functions of
Bureaucrats
3. Regulating
Regulations are updated by
civil servantsevery aspect
of private, corporate, and
governmental behavior is
regulatedthrough
regulation, governments
influence, direct and control
economic and social life.
4. Licensing
Enables the government to
control illegal activities of
individuals and
organizations.

Functions of
Bureaucrats
5. Servicing
Education, health, social
security. See comparison
on Israels and
Germanys spending on
defense and health.
6. Gathering information
Information from
bureaucracy are used by
legislature and executive
in shaping public
policies.

Dysfunction of
bureaucracy
The recent scholars have
identified a number of
weaknesses (dysfunction)
of bureaucracy. Dysfunction
may refer to social system
which is detracting from
adaptation and adjustment.
(cannot play function it
intended to perform.
Actual
behavior
in
organizational setting fall
short.

Bureaucratic
Dysfunctions
1. Officialism and
departmentalism
Red-tapesmultiplicity of
forms and filesrigid
routines.
2. Corruption
Regulations may tempt the
public to bribe officers.
3. Misuse of information
Dangers to freedom and
privacy.

Bureaucratic
accountability
One of the defining features of
democracies
is
the
institutionalization of bureaucratic
accountability and transparency
(Matlosa, 2000). The concept of
such a system is the ability of
ordinary
citizens
to
hold
government officials accountable
for their actions.

Accountability also refers to

the answerability. It means
organization
must
be
answerable to someone or
something
outside
itself.
When a thing goes wrong,
some one must be held
responsible.

 It is no doubt that is bureaucratic

accountability is called the
hallmark of public bureaucracy.
Without the realization of such
accountability,
public
bureaucracy loses its identity.
However, a frequently heard
charge/
criticism
is
that
government often is accountable
to itself rather than being
accountable to the public.
There are several ways of how to
improve
bureaucratic
accountability

Controlling the
Bureaucrats
1. Executive controls
Powers of appointment and
removalallocation of funds
enlarge/cut size.
2. Administrative controls
Internal machineries
coordination, self-discipline,
hierarchical structure.
3. Legislative controls
Legislators question
executives who rely on
information from
bureaucracy. Legislature can
also appoint a commission
of inquiry to conduct
investigation into
administrative departments.

Controlling the
Bureaucrats
Bureaucrats must defend
their budgetary requests
in legislature.
4. Judicial controls
The public may file a
complaint in court if
their rights are violated.
Courts can review
administrative setup or
procedure.
5. Constitutional controls
Constitution restricts
bureaucrats from
arbitrariness.

Controlling the
Bureaucrats
6. Office of Ombudsman
Sweden
1861.
Responsibility:
hear
complaints
regarding
unfairness, arbitrariness,
negligence,
discrimination.
Investigates issues such
as
social
assistance,
workers
compensation,
employment,
consumer
services, protection of
private property, licenses,
permits, etc.

Controlling the
Bureaucrats
7. Informal controls
1. Mass
media:
citizens
report to newspaper, radio,
television. Media provide a
venue for checking an
unresponsive bureaucracy.
2. Pressure groups: protecting
the
rights
of
their
members. They can start
their own investigation, and
sometimes
compel
government to change its
policies.