Cutting through the red tape of bureaucracy

In everyday parlance, "bureaucracy" is not a pretty word. To most people, bureaucratic means the opposite of efficient, and a bureaucrat is someone who gums up the works.

We easily forget that the scholar best known for systematic analysis of bureaucracy, German sociologist Max Weber (1864-1920), emphasized the progressive nature of the phenomenon.

In Weber's view, a bureaucratic organization is characterized by "rational" and impersonal conduct of work, and thus represents an advance over traditional feudal or patrimonial forms of administration that depend on personal ties and loyalties.