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Bureaucracy and Politics

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  • First Online:
Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance

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Synonyms

Political-administrative process; Politics-administration dichotomy; Politics-administration relationship

Definition

Bureaucracy:

The term appeared in France in the first half of the seventeenth century. It derives from the combination of the French word bureau, meaning “office,” and the Greek term κράτος, which means “power.” It denotes the supremacy of rules in the conducting of administrative functions. The new word entered the social sciences with Max Weber, for whom the bureaucracy was the typical administrative apparatus of legal power (Weber 1922).

Public administration:

A public sector, nonprofit organization institutionally designated to carry out public functions and subject to the direct or indirect political guidelines of elective bodies. Public organizations often have bureaucratic characteristics but may also display non-bureaucratic organizational features.

Politics:

Any activity concerning the acquisition, organization, distribution, exercising, reproduction,...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Political Sciences, University of Roma Tre, Rome, Italy

    Rosalba Chiarini

Authors
  1. Rosalba Chiarini
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rosalba Chiarini .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida, USA

    Ali Farazmand

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Chiarini, R. (2018). Bureaucracy and Politics. In: Farazmand, A. (eds) Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_609-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_609-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-31816-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-31816-5

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Economics and FinanceReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

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