Bureaucracy

When people hear the word "bureaucracy" they cringe. They immediately picture a line at the department of motor vehicles, or some other government agency, that is going out the door with only one teller working. Ask them how to describe bureaucracy and they will likely say slow, inefficient, and annoying.

What they fail to realize is that bureaucracy is actually the means by which the government operates.

When the House and Senate pass a bill and the president signs it into law, it is up to the respective agencies that implement the law to figure out exactly how they are going to do so. The law itself does not describe how it should be implemented nor does Congress or the president designate how that should occur. Those details fall to the enforcing agency to sort out.

Bureaucracy is the process by which the agency decides to implement and enforce said law.

The idea behind the creation of the bureaucracy was to insure the efficient operation of the government and the services that it provides. As government grew larger with the increasing size of the nation during the early years of the nation, a process by which to insure the efficient operation of the government became necessary.

Where the problem with bureaucracy often lies is in the scope by which it is implemented. The larger the scope, the more likely the process--or bureaucracy--is going to be a little muddled. Trying to designate how something should or will work in a country as diverse and widespread as the United States is a difficult task at best.

However, without it, the nation would be run in a thousand and one different ways, with little to no ability for the governing authority to oversee the process by which tasks were carried out with any kind of efficiency.