bureaucracy
[byoo-rok-ruh-see]
- government by many bureaus, administrators, and petty officials.
- the body of officials and administrators, especially of a government or government department.
- excessive multiplication of, and concentration of power in, administrative bureaus or administrators.
- administration characterized by excessive red tape and routine.
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Origin of bureaucracy
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for bureaucracy
Contemporary Examples
Depressing is really what Cuba has become—repression, bureaucracy, and crippling poverty.
In other words, what was once a matter of law, however imperfect, is now a matter of bureaucracy.
Only in bureaucracy or horror movies do people get in trouble for compelling acts of kindness.
When the mission becomes murky, and operations slow, bureaucracy creeps in to fill the gaps.
The ICAO, a bureaucracy with 191 members, is neither of those things.
Historical Examples
It is but fair to say that venality is not one of the characteristics of the German bureaucracy.
England and GermanyEmile Joseph Dillon
You are from that hour regarded as one of the younger children of Bureaucracy.
A Day's RideCharles James Lever
When this is understood, the nightmare of the bureaucracy of Socialism vanishes.
SocialismJohn Spargo
Even if the bureaucracy were omniscient, such a condition of life would be intolerable.
SocialismJohn Spargo
To live under a bureaucracy and not to see that it was funny!
GossamerGeorge A. Birmingham
bureaucracy
- a system of administration based upon organization into bureaus, division of labour, a hierarchy of authority, etc: designed to dispose of a large body of work in a routine manner
- government by such a system
- government or other officials collectively
- any administration in which action is impeded by unnecessary official procedures and red tape
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for bureaucracy
n.
1818, from French bureaucratie, coined by French economist Jean Claude Marie Vincent de Gournay (1712-1759) on model of democratie, aristocratie, from bureau "office," literally "desk" (see bureau) + Greek suffix -kratia denoting "power of" (see -cracy).
That vast net-work of administrative tyranny ... that system of bureaucracy, which leaves no free agent in all France, except for the man at Paris who pulls the wires. [J.S. Mill, "Westminster Review" XXVIII, 1837]
bureaucrat, &c. The formation is so barbarous that all attempt at self-respect in pronunciation may perhaps as well be abandoned. [Fowler]
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
bureaucracy
[(byoo-rok-ruh-see)]
A formal, hierarchical organization with many levels in which tasks, responsibilities, and authority are delegated among individuals, offices, or departments, held together by a central administration. According to many sociologists and anthropologists, the development of bureaucratic organizations is necessary for the emergence of any modern civilization. (See Max Weber.)
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Note
Today, the term bureaucracy suggests a lack of initiative, excessive adherence to rules and routine, red tape (see also red tape), inefficiency, or, even more serious, an impersonal force dominating the lives of individuals. (See Big Brother is watching you.)
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.