Government bureaucracy and its organizational structures

Government Bureaucracy

Personal Experience with Bureaucracy

When the average person hears the term bureaucracy, the typical image that is conjured up in the mind is probably that of smoke filled backrooms full of politically connected people whose only interest is the advancement of their own goals and objectives, or perhaps the endless backlog of paperwork which keeps progress from occurring. Whatever the case, by looking at a personal situation that resulted in a brush with bureaucracy, and comparing that experience with classic views of bureaucracy is quite interesting.

The personal experience with bureaucracy involves the payment of a personal income tax for the municipality in which I live. Where the complication came in was that surprisingly enough, I one day received a delinquent tax notice which was startling because I always paid my taxes on time and in full. Trying to find out what the reason for the delinquent tax notice was became a nightmare, as telephone calls to the tax office became a tangled maze of confusion, as each person to whom I spoke said they could not answer my questions- clearly, the interest to assist me was long gone. Ultimately, the error was acknowledged and fixed, but in the meantime, many problems occurred which could have been avoided.

What is seen in the example presented is that somehow, the goal of bureaucracy to assist the general public somehow was changed into a situation where the interests of the individuals became the goal, rather than a team effort to solve the issue at hand.

Having shown an exact, real-world example of a personal experience with bureaucracy, it is useful to also take a look at Weber's classic definition of bureaucracy and determine if Weber's definition is applicable in this situation.

Weber's Definition of Bureaucracy

Max Weber is considered by many to be not only one of the major figures in the history of the social sciences, but also the one person whose discussions of bureaucracy are still widely studied, over a century after they were first presented. According to Weber, bureaucracy is a form of public administration that is effective and efficient when it is used as a neutral way to govern, but it becomes ineffective and dangerous when individual interests come into play (Miner).