Bureaucracy is a system of administration carried out through an apparatus that stands over society and implies a systematic and particular order of receiving services by the state’s people. In political theory, it is mainly a centralized form of management. The particular socially helpful function of the bureaucrat, the managerial function, does not abolish the parasitism of the bureaucracy. Moreover, the greater the size and influence of the bureaucracy, the more privileges it appropriates, that is, the more parasitic it becomes.
Bureaucracy is a product of the social division of labor and another objective factor – the imperfection of social structure. Therefore, the bureaucracy itself is an imperfect social structure. The advantages of such an organization are the predictability of results of taken decisions, rationality, and indestructibility of the apparatus. The phenomenon of bureaucracy is very old: in Ancient China, in the second century B.C., the system of managing the state through officials – “mandarins”, who were selected from the most talented children and were trained with subsequent examinations, was developed.
Example of bureaucratic government system
One of the main positive features of bureaucracy is the leveling or equalization of social and economic disparities in society, achieved through its activities. This result stems from the essence of formal equality before the law, complemented by the possibilities of free and equal access of citizens to education.
