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Bureaucracy: Disregarding Public Administration

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The Withering of the Welfare State

Abstract

‘Bureaucracy’ has been a term of abuse in popular language for a long time (Albrow, 1970; Kaufman, 1981) and its pathologies – red tape, delays, inflexibility (see Merton, 1957) – have been a popular target for politicians too. However, over the last 40 years there has been a sustained attack on bureaucracy on a broader front: as the basis of state organisation, not just on its obvious perceived pathologies. ‘Everywhere its demise is reported, demanded and, more often than not, celebrated’ (du Gay, 2000, p. 1). A growing volume of academic literature shares the disdain for bureaucracy (see also Goodsell, 2004). Moreover, traditional patterns of bureaucracy are also being undermined by a range of social processes. Citizen expectations of government (Osborne and Gaebler, 1992), the growing reach of party organisation in democratic states (Katz and Mair, 1995) and the growth of university education (Aberbach, Putnam and Rockman, 1981), for example, all have implications for traditional conceptions of the role of bureaucracy and bureaucrats.

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Authors
  1. Edward Page
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Hull, United Kingdom

    James Connelly (Professor of Political Theory) (Professor of Political Theory)

  2. Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Hull, University of Oxford, United Kingdom

    Jack Hayward (Research Professor of Politics, Emeritus Professor of Politics) (Research Professor of Politics, Emeritus Professor of Politics)

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© 2012 Edward Page

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Page, E. (2012). Bureaucracy: Disregarding Public Administration. In: Connelly, J., Hayward, J. (eds) The Withering of the Welfare State. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230349230_7

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