Free Essay On Ideal Bureaucracies

The term, ‘Bureaucracy’ refers to an administrative body that administers institutions and system of a country. Members of this body are not elected like politicians but they have ample rights, duties, powers and responsibilities. Bureaucracy plays very significant role in making and administering of policies that run the government as well as the country. The whole system of any country or a society needs to be regulated in order to function smoothly and this is one of several responsibilities of bureaucracy. This paper intends to discuss bureaucracy and several other related aspects of the subject matter.
I run an NGO and the nature of my work require me to interact with bureaucracy. I have worked on several projects related to welfare of children, orphans, beggars, environment and road safety and in this course monitored the working of bureaucracy very closely. I still work on several projects and keep interacting with the bureaucrats every when and then. Basic purpose of my interaction with the bureaucracy is to convince bureaucracy to provide due share of children, women, beggars and others who are deprived of their rights. My NGO convinces bureaucrats to make policies for the betterment of these people, take them in mainstream and help them in leading a good life.
I have prepared several plans for the sanitation, environment and road safety. Since bureaucrats make policies on these issues and they have the authority to approve or disprove any change, I meet them and request to approve and provide me necessary cooperation and sources. I also request for some grants in case my NGO runs out of resources to fulfill our goals and projects. I have good feelings about working as well as competence of bureaucracy but also there are instances when I faced several problems as a result of apathy and complex working methods of bureaucracy.
There are a number of people who find fault about the working of bureaucracy and keep blaming the system for every fault but like everything else, bureaucracy also has two aspects. Bureaucracy has certain issues with it and no one can deny this fact but on the other hand it is almost impossible to run and administer institutions without the help of bureaucracy. One of most prominent issues with the bureaucracy, which has been found on basis of several incidents over a period of time, is Red Tapism.
Red Tapism refers to inaction of officials citing several procedures, laws and rules. This is one of most common problems with bureaucracy and persists in almost every society on this earth. On account of more than a few reasons, Bureaucrats sit on files instead of clearing them which defeats the very purpose of those who belong to these files. Bureaucrats delay some important programs which affect interest of needy people and this face of bureaucracy is not appreciated.
Unnecessary sticking by the procedures instead of considering about the need, urgency, effects and outcomes of these policies leaves a wrong impression of bureaucracy among people. Bureaucrats make people annoyed by their behavior knowingly or unknowingly. The situation becomes worse when bureaucrats out rightly discards the concerns of people instead of paying attention to these concerns or to solve them. Since they hold higher positions in the system, it is not easy to initiate any legal action against them and everybody can not afford the same. Even if any action is initiated against bureaucrats, such action goes into vain and bureaucrats manipulate things in their favor without any difficulty.
Bureaucrats consider themselves as masters instead of being public servants. Mutual Infighting, politics, leg pulling, indecisiveness, incompetence, corruption of the bureaucracy further makes things worse for people who suffer due to above said issues. The problem with people is they have to approach these bureaucrats again and again for their needs, work and implementation of policies. It has been observed in a number of cases that those who want to establish their business, industry or want to start any other ventures have no option but to approach bureaucrats irrespective of their behavior, apathy, incompetence, corruption or red Tapism.
A blatant misuse and example of red Tapism is the sufferings of sandy victims. Sandy hit the jersey shore last year and victims are still waiting for the insurance claims and their compensation. They blame red Tapism of bureaucracy for their sufferings and fighting to get what they deserve but did not get. Many of these victims have lost their family, friends, home, and businesses. The issue has got wide coverage in media but the bottleneck is still not opened and people wait for their day.
There are some issues in bureaucracy that needs to be resolved in order to improve people’s lives. Bureaucracy is bestowed many rights, duties, and responsibilities which can improve knotty situation of the society. Bureaucrats should be made more answerable to people in order to make bureaucracy more effective in serving the society. Bureaucracy is required to instruct about their duties and responsibilities and not only rights and powers. They must be made more answerable for their wrong acts. Their liability should be fixed and a mechanism should be developed in order to make them active and concerned about the development of society.
Bureaucrats should be made to realize that they need to act instead of sticking to procedures and red Tapism. They should think and work with new perspectives as a lot has been changed. We are in a modern society where human rights, dignity and values are widely recognized. Bureaucrats will have to understand that they are bestowed power and rights to serve the people and society and not to rule them. Their task is to make people life easy and administer smooth functioning of the society.
There should be a balance among different sections of the system. Politics, judiciary and bureaucracy should know their right, duties, responsibilities and limits. People should be made empowered and all the sections of government should ensure the empowerment of people. If people are empowered, no one can snatch their rights from them. When people are empowered and aware about their rights, duties and responsibilities, it is not easy for any one to violate or ignore their rights. People who aspire to work for the betterment of the society should be brought at front.
Politicians are often found manipulating bureaucrats to fulfill their personal interests. Such behavior and trend should not be exercised by them because when politicians start gaining undue favors from bureaucracy, bureaucrats stop caring about people and their interests. They start thinking that when politicians are there to support them, they are in the absolute power. Bureaucracy itself is not purely corrupt or guilty unless it is accompanied by other sections of the government.
Based upon my experiences, I believe social groups make pressure on bureaucracy whenever there is a need for it. The pressure made by social groups work and these groups successfully achieves what they want by making such pressure. Usually such pressure is created by social groups on bureaucracy to attract their attention on something which needs to be done in the interest of weaker sections of society. When bureaucrats fail to attend or pay attention on the needs of the needy people or ignore essential issues related to the society, social groups make pressure upon bureaucracy. There are several ways of making pressure on bureaucracy that social groups adopt.
Sometimes such pressure is used for social purposes or for a group that needs it but social groups also make pressure on bureaucracy to fulfill individual interests. It has been observed in a number of cases that social groups take benefit of their pressure to fulfill individual interests. Bureaucracy comes under pressure sometimes as these social groups enjoy support of people and also share good connections with politicians. In order to satisfy social groups, bureaucracy sometimes obliges these groups.
When social groups make pressure on bureaucracy in order to gain some personal interests, it defeats the interest of a larger section of the society. Using such pressure for personal gain also defeats the interest of those who are in need of help. Social groups are a ray of hope for many and they are supposed to fight for those who are deprived and when these groups work for personal gains, it corrupts the system.