Bureaucracy Red Tape of America
Bureaucracy - Red Tape of AmericaBureaucracy, simply defined can be called the “red tape” of the American Political system. Also, this red tape can further be explained as the life blood of the very structure. It is the dominant institution, the institution that epitomizes modernity. Bureaucracy is an organizational form of public administration, the very structure of the operating units of government. Bureaucracy takes a very special role in public administration. Bureaucracy has to be competent in order to be able to carry out the laws, and essentially; it can only be competent when its employees are competent, and competently led to do so.
Of the most famous political persons responsible for the making of bureaucracy, and its effects on society would be Max Weber, the German sociologist who set the course of the field in foundations of Administration and Politics. Weber established there were three different types of authority which helped to set the stage of public administration and helped to direct the forms of government which exist today. The three types of authority that dominate the governmental and societal settings of the present are traditional, charismatic, and legal rational. The third type of authority is the type which we are most familiar with. Legal rational authority dominates the modern world, and can easily be thought of as a closed system of regulations and rules forming a bureaucracy. This authority is purely devoted to impersonal and functional purposes, thus giving the perfect stage for bureaucracy, where all focuses are impersonal and functional alone.
While bureaucracy is based on the legal rational form of authority, there are five key elements which are continually present in a bureaucracy. First, there is a division of labor and there is functional specialization. Labor is divided by skills and authority, and the responsibility of each position is defined by law and administrative regulation. Second, each position, job and office is independent of its occupant. The job is permanent and may be filled by any number of different individuals. The two outcomes of this are that the ongoing nature of bureaucracy is important, and that human labor must become interchangeable. Third, authority becomes more centralized and hierarchical. There is a clear cut chain of commands, where at each stage there are superiors and subordinates. The ideal bureaucracy would be shaped like a triangle. Next, the bureaucracy would be structured by rules and procedures. All employees would interact within accordance of the legal definitions of their jobs. Finally, for the sake of organization, there is maintenance of files and other records.
Bureaucracy has the capacity to coordinate large scale administrative tasks with superior efficiency. This form of government can be seen as extremely effective and efficient. A bureaucracy concentrates on technical experience and acts predictably to...
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