CHAPTER EIGHT

BUREAUCRACY AS PERSONNEL SYSTEM AND POLITICAL-ADMINISTRATIVE RELATIONS

In Chapter 6 we made the case that for most of history bureaucracy was the instrument that supported those in power; seldom did mandarin-bureaucrats work for the people. We argued that in some parts of the world this has changed in the past 200 years or so. Bureaucracies have shown they can work for the people while supporting the political leadership elected into office. Bureaucracy is the most efficient of the organizational structures we know, but that does not mean that it adequately constrains the potential for maladministration by individuals (Tiihonen, 2003). Bureaucracies are networks of people, and not everyone is reliable, competent, citizen oriented, ...

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