Bureaucracy and Democracy January 12th, 2005

Liberal Democracy and Bureaucracy confluence bureaucracy is good in that it emphasis impartiality (over participation) dissonance danger is if bureaucracy becomes too powerful and threatens individual rights “Big Brother”

Elite Democracy and Bureaucracy confluence top-down and hierarchical nature of bureaucracy is good effective mechanism to pursue the general welfare dissonance danger if bureaucracy becomes too powerful and undermines competition among elected/political elites e.g. development of a permanent non-elected bureaucratic elite making decisions ultimately decisions must be ratified by elected elites

Participatory Democracy and Bureaucracy confluence effective mechanism to pursue the general welfare e.g. to put into effect the will of the majority dissonance top-down hierarchical nature of bureaucracy is bad excessive focus on impartiality (over participation) is bad

Main Messages!! bureaucracy and democracy relationship with democracy is paradoxical (but in different ways depending on model of democracy) in tension with all models of democracy extent of paradox depends on the model of democracy in question range bureaucratic model fits well with ideal model of democracy (elite democracy) bureaucratic model has inherent characteristics that fit with democracy but also poses threat to individual rights (liberal democracy) bureaucracy is a necessarily evil (participatory democracy) the paradoxical relationship generates a number of imperatives for each democratic model in designing and managing bureaucracy...