bureaucracy

- 2 dictionary results

bu⋅reauc⋅ra⋅cy

[byoo-rok-ruh-see]

–noun, plural -cies.

1.	government by many bureaus, administrators, and petty officials.

2.	the body of officials and administrators, esp. of a government or government department.

3.	excessive multiplication of, and concentration of power in, administrative bureaus or administrators.

4.	administration characterized by excessive red tape and routine.

Origin:
1810–20; bureau + -cracy, modeled on F bureaucratie

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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bu·reauc·ra·cy (byŏŏ-rŏk'rə-sē)

n. pl. bu·reauc·ra·cies

1. Administration of a government chiefly through bureaus or departments staffed with nonelected officials.
2. The departments and their officials as a group: promised to reorganize the federal bureaucracy.
3. Management or administration marked by hierarchical authority among numerous offices and by fixed procedures: The new department head did not know much about bureaucracy.
4. The administrative structure of a large or complex organization: a midlevel manager in a corporate bureaucracy.
1. Management or administration marked by hierarchical authority among numerous offices and by fixed procedures: The new department head did not know much about bureaucracy.
2. The administrative structure of a large or complex organization: a midlevel manager in a corporate bureaucracy.
An administrative system in which the need or inclination to follow rigid or complex procedures impedes effective action: innovative ideas that get bogged down in red tape and bureaucracy.

[French bureaucratie : bureau, office; see bureau + -cratie, rule (from Old French; see -cracy).]

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