Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
Bureaucracy
Bureaucratic Power: Out of Control?
Sources of Bureaucratic Power
The strategic position of bureaucrats in the policy process.
The logistical relationship between bureaucrats and
ministries.
The status and expertise of bureaucrats
Ways to control
Creation of mechanisms of political accountability
The politicization of the civil service.
The construction of counter bureaucracies
Sources
The principal sources of bureaucratic power include the
ability of civil servants to control the flow of information
and thus determine what their political masters know.
Bureaucrats are not only loyal civil servants, they are in
fact the powerful and influential persons who
collectively constitute a fourth branch of the
government.
Examples: Japanese bureaucrats were the mastermind
of Japanese economic miracle during 1950s and
1960s, so are viewed as Japans permanent
politicians.
Sources
UKs Civil Service was termed as Britains Ruling
Class (Kellner and Cowther Hunt, 1980).
The Eurocrats (European Bureaucrats) based on the
administration of European Union in Brussels are
considered as the driving force of its monetary and
political union.
Leftist and Rightist often dismiss the conventional
notion of bureaucratic neutrality.
Marxist have blamed Bureaucracy as a mechanism
to subjugate working class by diluting the radical
policies of socialist government.
Sources
On the Other hand, the New Rightists insist that self
interested public officials foster governmental growth
and resist neo-liberal or free-market policies.
The sources of bureaucratic power include:
1. The Strategic Position of Bureaucrats in the Policy
Process:
Senior bureaucrats are the experts who advise policy
process. They have access to information and are able to
control its flow to their ministerial bosses.
Such knowledge and information are the powers of
ministries.
Sources
Bureaucrats decide what ministers know and what they
dont.
In such a way policy option is designed according to the
interest of bureaucrats.
However, it does not mean that Bureaucrats are deliberately
manipulative. It means that bureaucrats preferences
significantly structure policy debate and can shape the
decisions.
2. The logistical relationship between bureaucrats and
ministries.
Operational relationship and the mutual advantage
shared by ministers and bureaucrats also provide power to
bureaucrats.
Sources