ABSTRACT
Bureaucracy is a place dedicated to passing a buck or spending it. Bureaucracy is a government system designed to allow 10 men to do the work of one. Understanding the job of bureaucracy is important because democratic governments in the United States promise a great deal—law and order, equal opportunity public education, clean air, libraries, a safe food supply, basic healthcare; the list is long and growing. Organizational structure is crucial to understanding bureaucracy and how it goes about implementing government decisions. The neutrality of bureaucracy is responsible, in part, for its unflattering reputation. Another characteristic of bureaucracy that relates to the core principles of democracy is professionalization, which means that the people who staff public agencies are there on the basis of merit: They are hired and promoted on the basis of their qualifications and their job performance rather than on their political connections.
