bureaucracy

noun

bu·reau·cra·cy byu̇-ˈrä-krə-sē

byə-,

byər-ˈä-

plural bureaucracies

: a body of nonelected government officials

: an administrative policy-making group

: government characterized by specialization of functions, adherence to fixed rules, and a hierarchy of authority

: a system of administration marked by officialism, red tape, and proliferation

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The Roots of Bureaucracy

Bureaucracy was borrowed from the French bureaucratie, which itself was formed by combining bureau (“desk”) and -cratie (a suffix denoting a kind of government). The English word can refer to an entire body of unelected government officials or to the problematic system (often filled with red tape) that may result from administration by bureaucrats. From its earliest appearances, bureaucracy has carried a distinctly negative connotation. An 1815 London Times article, for example, declares: “. . . it is in this bureaucracy, Gentlemen, that you will find the invisible and mischievous power which thwarts the most noble views, and prevents or weakens the effect of all the salutary reforms which France is incessantly calling for.”

Example Sentences

As Europe slipped deeper into the war, the uranium panel twiddled its thumbs. It was so mired in bureaucracy that by the spring of 1940, it had managed to approve only the $6,000 in research funds earmarked for Fermi and Szilard, so they could purchase uranium and graphite for their fission experiments. —

Jennet Conant, Tuxedo Park, 2002

In recent books and articles a small but outspoken chorus of former CIA case officers has portrayed the once proudly swashbuckling agency as a timid, politically correct bureaucracy, overly concerned with being held to account by the press and Capitol Hill. —

Evan Thomas, Newsweek, 29 Apr. 2002

Proving that even lumbering federal bureaucracies can move quickly when they have to, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) last week took advantage of Congress' extended holiday break to introduce its long-awaited—and, perhaps, long-dreaded—ergonomic standards. —

Editor & Publisher, 27 Nov. 1999

She was fed up with all the red tape and bureaucracy. Both candidates pledge to simplify the state's bloated bureaucracy.

Recent Examples on the Web Except the panel is poised more to focus on coronavirus prevention policies and try to frame Anthony Fauci as some kind of nefarious ultragovernment technocrat obsessed with adding anti-freedom layers of bureaucracy to everyday life. —

Daniel Strauss, The New Republic, 31 Jan. 2023 The barriers to information and the complexity of the bureaucracy sometimes feel intentional, said Marla Marcum, the co-founder of the Climate Disobedience Center and a No Coal No Gas organizer. —

Sabrina Shankman, BostonGlobe.com, 25 Jan. 2023 The path from idea generation to project execution is much shorter when employees aren’t bogged down by slow-moving paperwork or layers of bureaucracy. —

Michelle Taylor, Forbes, 11 Jan. 2023 Its lessons about the finity of existence and the beauty of living for the good of others are nothing if not universally applicable, something that could also be said of its withering indictment of government bureaucracy. —

Justin Changfilm Critic, Los Angeles Times, 21 Dec. 2022 China’s refusal to provide statistics, combined with the haphazard way the postponements were communicated, suggested either that part of the bureaucracy was in disarray or that China’s economy was in worse shape than most people had realized. —

Keith Bradsher, New York Times, 18 Oct. 2022 Keeping good records is a cardinal rule of bureaucracy, and at government agencies routinely hiding the sensitive ones, and utterly suppressing the most embarrassing ones, is the prevailing general imperative. —

Daniel Ford, The New Yorker, 13 Aug. 2022 The Department of Data is a vast bureaucracy (of one) that turns quantifiable questions into columns! —

Andrew Van Dam, Washington Post, 10 Feb. 2023 The conclave was looking, among other things, for someone to clean up the inefficient and corrupt papal bureaucracy, or Curia. —

David Van Biema, Time, 31 Dec. 2022 See More

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'bureaucracy.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.