Bureaucratic Counterpoint

Yesterday I went on a bit of a rant on the problems of bureaucracy. Then, today, I read The Case FOR Bureaucracy. I don’t usually recommend articles with a strong political bias, particularly one different from my own, today I’ll make an exception.

Disclaimer: The author, Douglas J. Amy, Professor of Politics at Mount Holyoke College, concludes with “The negative stereotypes of bureaucracy that we have looked at in this article contribute to a political atmosphere that legitimizes the right-wing attack on government.” Further indications of a certain bias include:

· 20 negative uses of conservative, conservatives, Republicans, right-wing

· 0 uses of the terms liberal, liberals, Democrat or left-wing

· 3 criticisms of the Bush administration regarding Hurricane Katrina

· And 2 positive mentions of Al Gore’s National Performance review

Despite Professor Amy’s partisan tone, there is much good to be gleaned from this article. It examines and tries to refute many commonly held ideas:

· Bureaucracies Are Immensely Wasteful

· Business is Always Better than Bureaucracy

· We Want the Government to Act Like a Business

· Bureaucracy is a Major Cause of Government Growth

· Bureaucracies Usually Provide Poor Service

· It’s Bad that Agencies Don’t Treat Us as Individuals

While there is much material that is debatable, it certainly demonstrates that these ideas should not be taken without question, there are reasonable alternative arguments.

It also offers support for the points of view that there is much good about bureaucracy and that some bureaucrats are true heroes. It briefly discusses needed reforms (serving as a prelude to another article on the site called Revitalizing the Public Sector) and the need to get past stereotypes.

Both of these articles are thorough and well worth reading, regardless of your political stripe. The author and I may disagree on many of the reasons for the universal distain of bureaucracy, but we agree in many areas. Appreciate and develop what it does well and why it does them well. Consider what it does poorly and why and then decide if it needs reform or another structure entirely. Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. Professor Amy wisely states:

“… it is important to see that the case for bureaucracy is about more than what those agencies can do for us as individuals, it is about the crucial role they play in creating a better society for all of us. As Charles Goodsell has noted, government bureaucracies form the public infrastructure that is essential to maintaining a free and prosperous society:

‘A good bureaucracy is indispensable to a free society, a democratic polity, and a capitalist economy. The freedom to wander the streets at night, for example depends on competent law enforcement. The ability to vote governments out of office without disruption requires a reliable administrative apparatus. A prosperous business community demands good schools, highways, health departments, post offices, and water and sewer systems.’ - The Case for Bureaucracy: A Public Administration Polemic

So if you feel that America is a good place to live, at least part of the credit for that must be given to government bureaucracies. Literally, the good life as we know it in the United States could not exist without the numerous and various essential tasks being performed by these public agencies on all levels of government.”

But we will need ways, fair and honest ways, to make the government run more efficiently and frugally so that “good life” can be passed down to future generation without bankrupting them.