Comments on: The Cancer of Bureaucracy https://www.isegoria.net/2010/04/the-cancer-of-bureaucracy/ From the ancient Greek for equality in freedom of speech; an eclectic mix of thoughts, large and small Sat, 18 Apr 2026 00:55:29 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.6.1 By: Mala Lex https://www.isegoria.net/2010/04/the-cancer-of-bureaucracy/comment-page-1/#comment-980 Mala Lex Fri, 30 Apr 2010 14:34:52 +0000 http://www.isegoria.net/?p=5390#comment-980 I’m not sure that corporate bureaucracy is getting worse. Casually, it seemed to hit a peak in mid-20th century. If anything, start-ups are more numerous than ever, and corporations try for flatter org charts these days — independent business units, etc.

Now, government bureaucracy does seem to be growing, but I think rather than computerization, the problem there is, basically, the professional civil service. On a long-run chart, the Pendleton Act (1880s), by creating permanent budget-maximizers (contra the old spoils system, which simply created petty thieves on 4-year timers), leads inexorably to both the growth and mission creep of government.

Unfortunately, I can’t imagine reversing this one — try selling to voters a return to the spoils system? So I suppose the system will just have to bankrupt itself, and we’ll start over.

]]>