noun, plural bu·reauc·ra·cies.
- government by many bureaus, administrators, and petty officials.
- the body of officials and administrators, especially of a government or government department.
- excessive multiplication of, and concentration of power in, administrative bureaus or administrators.
- administration characterized by excessive red tape and routine.
noun plural -cies
- a system of administration based upon organization into bureaus, division of labour, a hierarchy of authority, etc: designed to dispose of a large body of work in a routine manner
- government by such a system
- government or other officials collectively
- any administration in which action is impeded by unnecessary official procedures and red tape
1818, from French bureaucratie, coined by French economist Jean Claude Marie Vincent de Gournay (1712-1759) on model of democratie, aristocratie, from bureau “office,” literally “desk” (see bureau) + Greek suffix -kratia denoting “power of” (see -cracy).
That vast net-work of administrative tyranny … that system of bureaucracy, which leaves no free agent in all France, except for the man at Paris who pulls the wires. [J.S. Mill, “Westminster Review” XXVIII, 1837]
bureaucrat, &c. The formation is so barbarous that all attempt at self-respect in pronunciation may perhaps as well be abandoned. [Fowler]
A formal, hierarchical organization with many levels in which tasks, responsibilities, and authority are delegated among individuals, offices, or departments, held together by a central administration. According to many sociologists and anthropologists, the development of bureaucratic organizations is necessary for the emergence of any modern civilization. (See Max Weber.)