bureaucracy
English
Alternative forms
- bureaucratie
- bureau-ocracy (dated)
Etymology
bureau + -cracy, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] French bureaucratie, coined by Jean Claude Marie Vincent de Gournay (died 1759) from bureau (“office”) + -cratie (“rule of”)
Pronunciation
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- Lua error in Module:parameters at line 290: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "US" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /bjʊˈɹɑːkɹəsi/
Noun
bureaucracy (countable and uncountable, plural bureaucracies)
- Government by bureaus or their administrators or officers.
- (business, organizational theory) A system of administration based upon organisation into bureaus, division of labour, a hierarchy of authority, etc., designed to dispose of a large body of work in a routine manner.
- At that time the administration replaced the system of patronage in the civil service with a bureaucracy.
- The body of officers and administrators, especially of a government.
- The bureaucracy is expanding to meet the needs of the expanding bureaucracy. (apocryphal quip)
- Any administration, body, or behavior characterised by excessive red tape and routine.
- The head of the civil service promised to clamp down on bureaucracy.
Derived terms
Translations
government by bureaus
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system of administration
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body of officers
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excessive red tape
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See also
Further reading
- "bureaucracy" in Raymond Williams, Keywords (revised), 1983, Fontana Press, page 49.