ipl-logo

Bureaucracy At The Office Of The Illinois Secretary Of State

616 Words3 Pages

A bureaucracy that I am familiar with is the Office of the Illinois Secretary of State, specifically the Driver Services Department. Max Weber defined a bureaucracy as a formal organization with a hierarchy of authority and a clear division of labor that places emphasis on impersonality of positions and written rules, communications, and records. His characteristics of a bureaucracy applied to the Driver Services Department of the Illinois Secretary of State are shown below:
A bureaucracy has separate levels, with assignments flowing downward and accountability flowing upward. The head of this organization is the Illinois Secretary of State, which is an elected official. His job is to keep state records/archives, and he has authority over vehicle and driver’s licenses. This office is divided into 21 departments, and one of them, driver services, has two directors, one for downstate and the other for the metro area. There are 130 locations that are a part of the driver’s license/state ID card section. Within this section is the Cooperative Driver Testing Program, which allows …show more content…

Each worker is assigned specific tasks, which are coordinated to accomplish the purpose of the organization. The departments of the Office of the Illinois Secretary of State employ over 4,000 people. This characteristic is displayed when you go to a Drivers Services Department location to obtain a driver’s license. When you walk through front door, you first get checked by security, and they direct you where to go. Then, you receive a number, and you have to sit and wait for it to be called. You must proceed to a specific desk, and the worker here will check the database for your information. If everything is in order, you are directed to another station to get your picture taken by different worker. Lastly, you wait for your license to print. In this example, one visit to this organization requires talking to several different

Show More
Related
1040 Words | 5 Pages

Sales tax is income elastic; because of this fact, consumers have a higher tax incidence and carry the burden. From this, it has been evidenced that the tax burden is vertically unequitable and can be seen as unfair to the less fortunate. Sales tax is paid by retailers, which is dependent upon their sales revenue. However, since the demand of consumers is inelastic and can vary based on market and economic conditions, this burden is felt more by lower income individuals and families. However, it is important to note that the tax burden is independent of who physically pays the tax.

Read More
768 Words | 4 Pages

Structures of New Jersey Department of Education The New Jersey State Department of Education structure is similar to what the guidelines stated in (Kauchak, Eggen pg.219) which consists of 13 members who serve without compensation, Commissioner of Education serves as both the secretary and its official agent for all purposes, the state Board of Education adopts the administrative code which sets the rules needed to implement the state education laws. Many of the Board members hold degrees in recognized fields of study. They have districts, which are broken down by areas correlating with population and sectors. The Board of Examiners is the licensing authority for issuing all certifications. Requirements for Certification New Jersey certification is required for any professional staff member employed in New Jersey public schools or in

Read More
245 Words | 1 Pages

In Goodsell’s “A Case for Bureaucracy” Goodsell makes several valid points about the argument for and against Bureaucracy. Before reading I too would have assumed bureaucracy is a waste of time and that most bureaucrats are just lazy, rude and tend to hate their job. But now I've realized that Bureaucracy does succeed. People, Americans, tend to expect bureaucrats to be able to do anything. Even when the tasks seems impossible they expect the problem to be solved immediately which ultimately sets the bureaucrats up for failure from the beginning.

Read More
398 Words | 2 Pages

The most important thing that the bureaucracy does is implement policy. Congress and the President make the policies and laws, but they have someone else (the bureaucracy) to implement them. However, they also make policy by rule-making (process of defining rules or standards that apply uniformly to classes of individuals, events, and activities). Also, according to Jillson (2016), "Congress passes laws that authorize government programs, the bureaucracy then writes specific rules that define how the program will be administered." So, when the bureaucracy makes rules you have to obey them because they have the force of law.

Read More
224 Words | 1 Pages

This case deals with bureaucratic form with benefit and dysfunction. Plans were rejected when the city council were looking for new revenue opportunities. The city council made a second decision to develop properties on the north and south side of the street and remove forty home, while providing jobs for the residents and sale tax revenue. Bureaucracy is being used due to the complex tasks. The city council were concerned about how the project was being completed, the cost, time consuming and the decision making.

Read More
374 Words | 2 Pages

The most effective bureaucratic system is that of the United States. If i could change the US bureaucratic system to one for another nation, I would choose not to do so because the citizens of America would not do well with a drastic change. The system we have now is productive and effective in doing its job. The United States, in the past, has been known to be the best nation in the world for many years. Other countries would look up to this country's system and try to replicate it so their nation could be as effective as this one.

Read More
804 Words | 4 Pages

The bureaucracy is a major base of power that can be difficult to control. Max Weber believed that bureaucracies shared certain characteristics: chain of command, division of labor, and impersonality. The chain of command is a form of organization characterized by a hierarchical structure of authority. In a military context, for example, the chain of command is the line of authority and responsibility along which orders are passed within a military unit and between different units. The division of labor is when work is divided among specialized workers in order to improve productivity.

Read More
1717 Words | 7 Pages

Bureaucracy, Almost everyone deals with bureaucracy every day in one way or another and even if you do not personally deal with a bureaucratic official today your activities are being monitored by a bureaucratic system somewhere, but despite the fact, most people still have very little knowledge of how it works and its significance. To understand bureaucracy more it is a collection or group of official who engage in administrative and policy making duties. It is a system of government or business that has many complicated rules and ways of doing things. Bureaucracy can be considered to be a particular case of rationalization, or rationalization applied to human organization. . It’s difficult for students to engage into this topic, because they are actually living inside a bureaucracy.

Read More
1233 Words | 5 Pages

Bureaucracy is used in organisations to complete large-scale administrative tasks by appointing different people tasks in a methodical way. Bureaucracy has a few characteristics, so let’s see

Read More
480 Words | 2 Pages

A bureaucracy is a large complex organization composed of appointed officials. Because of its complexity, there are multiple problems throughout. Both Peter Woll and James Q. Wilson explain their points of view on the bureaucracy and its issues. A heavy bureaucracy is a necessary structure to help governments to deal with the complexities of modern life and the expectations of modern governments.

Read More
2492 Words | 10 Pages

In Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of the Individual in Public Services, Lipsky defines street-level bureaucrats as the “teachers, police officers and other law enforcement personnel, social workers, judges, public lawyers and other court officers, health workers, and many other public employees who grant access to government programs and provide services within them” (1980, 3). The book provides us with an insight into the everyday life of a street-level bureaucrat and shows their unmistakable role in delivering social services. Lipsky believes policy is best understood when looking at the people at the forefront of the implementation process; those that have to deal with both the government and the public. Overall, I found this book extremely

Read More
207 Words | 1 Pages

As I mentioned previously, Bureaucracy is a term that refers to certain government institutions. These institutions are responsible for the implementation of public policies and other important behind-the-scene tasks. Ideally, they are meant to be free from political accountability and are expected to release their orders autonomously. There are four elements of Federal bureaucracy and they are the Cabinet department, Independent executive agencies, Independent regulatory agencies i.e. EPA, and Government organizations. In relation to the President of the United States, congress, and the courts the relationship between the four is complicated.

Read More
791 Words | 4 Pages

The German sociologist Max Weber [3] described many ideal-typical forms of public administration, government, and business. Weber agreed that bureaucracy constitutes the most efficient and rational way in which human activity can be organized, and that thus is indispensable to the modern

Read More
2493 Words | 10 Pages

A centralized structure is usually designed and has a formal layout. While in a decentralized organizational structure, the decision making control is distributed among departments and each department has certain degree of independence. It is usually emergent. Bureaucracy in an organization is based on single chain of command from top level to bottom level. It is the most rigid and formal type of organizational structure.

Read More
1371 Words | 6 Pages

The term bureaucracy refers to a particular type and technique of administrative organization. In the 1930s Max Weber, a German sociologist and political economist; he wanted to find out why people in organizations obeyed those in authority above them. He wrote a validation that described the bureaucratic form as being the ultimate way of organizing government agencies. Weber’s study of business was centered on understanding the need for stability and consistency in achieving competence.

Read More

More about Bureaucracy At The Office Of The Illinois Secretary Of State

Related Topics

Open Document