Study Questions
1. The term Bureaucracy stems from the French word-meaning desk; Explain how this fits with our view of the Bureaucracy.
2. Consider your personal experience with some bureaucracy—be it at the department of motor vehicles or in the financial-aid office of a public university. Do the characteristics of bureaucracy ring true given your experience?
3. What kinds of governmental functions do bureaucracies commonly serve?
4. Why are there extra vowels in bureaucracy?
5. Why is strict adherence to rule-based decision making an ideal of bureaucratic government?
6. How does an iron triangle form? Provide examples of current Iron-Triangles.
7. Why isn’t overhead democracy an effective means of subjecting bureaucracies to democratic control?
8. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of Agency Theory as it applies to the Bureaucracy