Bureaucracy is an organizational structure that involves many levels of management and specialization. Its main purpose is to carry out the agenda of its leaders. In most cases, bureaucracy is associated with large organizations such as corporations, governments and universities. It refers to a system of government in which power is held by appointed officials, rather than by elected representatives.
The term bureaucracy comes from the French word for office, bureau. It was first used by French writer Alexis de Tocqueville in 1835 to describe the political system he witnessed during his travels in North America. In his book Democracy in America, Tocqueville wrote that American democracy was “a political order based on the authority of society rather than on the authority of the state.” He described this as a system in which “individual liberty is at once recognized and limited,” because there was no official source of power other than society itself.
Bureaucracy is most often found within large organizations such as businesses and governments. Large organizations have many employees who are tasked with maintaining order within their departments or agencies. Bureaucrats are usually required to follow strict rules and procedures when completing their tasks so that everyone remains on task, even if they do not necessarily agree with those rules or procedures. The goal in these situations is efficiency: no one should waste time doing unnecessary work because someone else did not do theirs correctly.
