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Peter Wilson's Definition Of A Bureaucracy

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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. Modern life and government contain multiple complexities within them, one of them being a problem in enforcing decisions of the branches. Weber’s observations view a bureaucracy as “an important fourth branch of government” where the administrative branch has all of the power of government. He states that these agencies have the responsibility of making and enforcing the decisions initiated by either the legislative or executive branch. Because the government is so far away from the people, the bureaucracy is used to link them together. This heavy bureaucratic structure is necessary because these agencies can offer advice and can affect the policy-making process, which can help to deal with the complexities …show more content…

By definition, a bureaucracy is the hierarchical system of agencies and departments that work under a single chief executive in order to attain the organization’s goals. Once people are involved, this idea changes. Wilson states that in a hierarchical organization, personnel reach a point where incompetence is obvious. This incompetence leads the bureaucracy to lead to stagnancy, corruption, and/or mediocrity since the personnel are described to not have the ability to effectively reach their goal. The definition of bureaucracy leads people to believe that it would not lead to stagnancy, corruption and/or mediocrity; however, once people are involved, the situation changes and things take a turn for the

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