Bureaucracy & Democracy

Democracy is a term with several(prenominal) meanings and this has led to a genuine misconception as to its real meaning. To some, bureaucracy is trigger-happy tape, to others it is officialdom and to some it is an organizational form (Cole p25). Observation and studies on bureaucracy have been d maven by umteen academicians among them Max weber (1864-1920). Weber wanted to find out why good deal in many organizations obeyed those in authority over them. Weber observed that people obeyed reliable authority and he identified three types of legitimate authority as traditional authority, charismatic authority and rational-legal authority.It is the rational-legal form of authority that exists in almost organizations today and this is the form to which Weber ascribed the term bureaucracy. Weber adumbrate the main features of bureaucracy as a continuous organization of functions kick by sees, specified spheres of competence, a hierarchical arrangement of offices, appointments to offices made on grounds of technical competence, the separation of officials from the ownership of the organization, official positions exist on their own right and finally rules, decisions and actions ar formulated and recorded in writing (Cole p 26).Weber felt that bureaucracy was indispensable for large organizations and on that point is no doubt that this form organization has been adopted in one way or another virtually in all forms of enterprises the earthly concern over. Government bureaucracy If men were angels, no organization would be incumbent James Madison and for political sympathiess bureaucracy is form of memorial tablet that is practicable.However this form of governance has critics and the views of Amy are that bureaucracy is a governance structure that is often comprehend negatively by a number of people but he says that most criticisms of governance bureaucracy are based more than on myths than reality (Amy 2007 p1-8). Amys observation is that people nor mally associate bureaucracy to massive waste, inefficiency, poor service, ever-growing organizations, mindless rules and realms of useless forms. For these people thither is vigour good nearly bureaucracy as those working in such(prenominal) governances are considered to be lazy, hostile, overpaid, imperious and inflexible.In his arguments, Amy dismisses what he terms the four myths about bureaucracy 1. Myth no 1 Bureaucracies are immensely wasteful. task payers wrongly or rightly turn over that much of the tax increases are a result of wastefulness arising from bureaucracies. Government agencies are considered not all wasteful but enormously wasteful. A survey carried out revealed that Americans believe that 48 cents of every tax dollar going to bureaucracies such the brotherly Security Administration are wasted (Amy 2007).Amy says that investigations by the Government report Office and various blue-ribbon commissions have put in that waste amounts to a small fraction of t hat figure. 2. Myth no 2 Business is invariably better than bureaucracy. As per Amy, there have been many empirical studies examining government bureaucracies versus business in many areas, including refuse collection, electrical utilities, public transportation, pee supply systems and hospital administration. The findings have been mixed.Some studies of electric utilities have found that in public own ones were more efficient and charged lower prices than privately owned utilities. Several other studies found the opposite while many others found no significant difference. 3. Myth no 3 We want the government to act like a business. The main concern of the government is type of the service not its costs unlike the business who are haunt with the bottom-line and hence looking for the cheapest way to make a product or deliver as service.For caseful it will be imprudent to sink the least amount of resources in the air traffic control system or to look for the cheapest workforce to take charge of security at the airports. 4. Myth no 4 Bureaucracy is major cause of government growth. Conservatives argue that government bureaucracies have an inherent tendency to expand. However figures channelise that federal agencies have not been growing at an alarming rate. For example in 1970, about 2997000 civilians worked for the federal government at that time.By 2007 that figure had genuinely gone down to 2695000. An article in published by the suburban Emergence Management brook (2006 home page) realms that the Hurricane Katrina response by the federal, state and local governments in August-September 2005 caused some people to lose faith in the bureaucratic approach used by traditional government hierarchies to machinate the provision of services to users who desperately needed them. For example, at the local level, impudent Orleans Mayor told the U.S. Senate Committee on homeland Security that he could not commandeer the dozens available school buses to evacuat e people because the school boards owned buses, he had no authority over the boards and there was no agreement for the use of the buses. At the state level, the Governor slow down use of military forces to begin reconstitution of the stricken localities until she could validate her authority to rule the troops by disallowing federal National Guards in her state.At the federal level, the President, the Homeland Security Secretary and Federal Emergency Management Agency conductor could provide services to users of New Orleans during Katrina only at the savvy of the governor of Louisiana. Conclusion There are areas where government bureaucracy is more effective while in other cases it is counterproductive as attest during the Hurricane Katrina crisis. Works cited Amy, D. J. (2007). The case of Democracy, The government is Good We the People An unapologetic exculpation of vital institution.Available at accessed on April 2, 2009. Pages 1-8 Cole, G. (2004). Management Theory and Pract ice, sixth Edition published, by Thomson Learning 2004. 25-28. Suburban Emergency Management Project (2006), Government Bureaucracy and Two Newer Cultural Approaches to Provide Services preservation to the Citizenry during Disasters, Biot Report 411 November 07, 2006. Available at http//www. semp. us/public/biot_reder. php? BiotID=411 accessed on April 3, 2009.