The Bureaucracy

Modern government needs bureaucracy. To deliver the mail, to fight wars, to clean the environment, to manage the schools, and to launch shuttles into space, an organization of experts and staff is required. These administrators are what keep America’s government among the most competent, least corrupt in the world. But there’s a price to be paid for relying on specialized bureaucracies. The risk is they can develop interests of their own, often seeing the world through the eyes of their agency’s mission rather than the citizens they serve. They may also be so tightly directed or politically pressured that they ignore the expertise on which their organization depends.