Bureaucracies are like food, we need them but not too much and quality can be very variable. Unfortunately bureaucracies prefer bloat to quality.
As a consequence, containment has become the lifeblood of government bureaucracy where problems are generally contained by bloated regulations, not solved. Bureaucratic containment can be a job for life, but solving the need for it is not. Solutions could cause bureaucrat redundancy and that would never do.
In the bureaucratic world, even problem solving can be a tactic to generate more opportunities for containment. Naturally enough, containment endures because we do need a certain level of regulation and enforcement. Red tape is not necessarily destructive, but it is an opportunity to push containment further and deeper until it becomes destructive. Even this offers more bureaucratic opportunities.
As an example, we have a UK drugs problem. Containing it provides a permanent bureaucratic workload. Consequently we have a drugs policy which isn’t intended to solve the problem but to contain it. Politically this is satisfactory – the problem is contained and a few drug seizures create the impression that something is being done. Which it is, but not necessarily the best that could be done. Nobody is interested in that.
As another topical example we have a net zero carbon policy because it won’t work, just as we have other climate policies and regulations because they won't work. The huge bureaucratic advantage of climate policies is that they do not even make sense. The climate narrative offers containment opportunities which are simply invented to mitigate imaginary problems in an imaginary future.
We have mass immigration in the UK, not because it is beneficial but because it is not beneficial, because it offers numerous integration problems as opportunities for bureaucratic containment.
Race relations bureaucracy is a spin-off from mass immigration. It too has delivered numerous bureaucratic containment opportunities, some invented, some created by opportunistic containment policies. It all serves to generate laws, regulations, education, training and an endless source of virtuous aspiration.
We have state education because it doesn’t work as well as education could be made to work. As with other bureaucratic activities, mediocrity offers endless opportunities for containing poor performance without curing it. Even superior educational performance becomes a driver for further bureaucratic initiatives which turn out to be containment rather than improvement.
Even information offers bureaucratic containment opportunities. As we know. That’s the sinister one.
In the bureaucratic world, even problem solving can be a tactic to generate more opportunities for containment. Naturally enough, containment endures because we do need a certain level of regulation and enforcement. Red tape is not necessarily destructive, but it is an opportunity to push containment further and deeper until it becomes destructive. Even this offers more bureaucratic opportunities.
As an example, we have a UK drugs problem. Containing it provides a permanent bureaucratic workload. Consequently we have a drugs policy which isn’t intended to solve the problem but to contain it. Politically this is satisfactory – the problem is contained and a few drug seizures create the impression that something is being done. Which it is, but not necessarily the best that could be done. Nobody is interested in that.
As another topical example we have a net zero carbon policy because it won’t work, just as we have other climate policies and regulations because they won't work. The huge bureaucratic advantage of climate policies is that they do not even make sense. The climate narrative offers containment opportunities which are simply invented to mitigate imaginary problems in an imaginary future.
We have mass immigration in the UK, not because it is beneficial but because it is not beneficial, because it offers numerous integration problems as opportunities for bureaucratic containment.
Race relations bureaucracy is a spin-off from mass immigration. It too has delivered numerous bureaucratic containment opportunities, some invented, some created by opportunistic containment policies. It all serves to generate laws, regulations, education, training and an endless source of virtuous aspiration.
We have state education because it doesn’t work as well as education could be made to work. As with other bureaucratic activities, mediocrity offers endless opportunities for containing poor performance without curing it. Even superior educational performance becomes a driver for further bureaucratic initiatives which turn out to be containment rather than improvement.
Even information offers bureaucratic containment opportunities. As we know. That’s the sinister one.
2 comments:
Years ago, before I retired, I worked in the IT department of a large business. Very much in a 'back office' role. Our internal customers managers would often demand new monthly reports after some computer issue. We complied (of course) but we realised that after a while the customers managers rarely read the reports after the first few were published, and that other managers were moved to new jobs and no longer needed those reports (but didn't tell us). So we continued to produce the reports for a couple of months - but didn't send them out. If no-one complained we stopped producing them.
Part of the perils of bureaucracy is that it is too easy to 'grow' with hardly any pressure to reduce it. So one new report only if one old report is cancelled. One new system only if one old one is scrapped, and so on. Some Governments have adopted the 'one new law for one old law scrapped' concept but there is always some pressure to retain the old stuff.
At the risk of creating even more bureaucracy perhaps we need a powerful Ministry dedicated to the of deconstruction of bureaucracy. Mind you the 'Bonfire of the Quangos' soon fizzled out.
DJ - I once generated a report on the performance of people in the field showing how widely it varied. As it was a quango there was a certain amount of interest but nothing was done and nobody asked for the reports to be produced on a regular basis.
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