We are all faced with the problem of rampant bureaucracy, and many of us don’t even fully realize it. Bureaucratic practices, habits, and sensibilities engulf us, organizing our lives around the filling out of forms. Just as university professors feel it is inevitable that they will spend more and more time managing grants, parents accept spending weeks filling out online forms to get their children into schools. Store clerks realize they will spend increasing slices of their waking lives punching passwords into their phones to manage their various accounts, and pretty much everyone understands that they have to learn how to perform jobs once relegated to travel agents, brokers, and accountants.
Someone once figured out that the average American will spend a cumulative six months of their life waiting for the light to change (how horrifying!). While similar figures for filling out forms are not available, it must be at least that much. No population in history has spent so much time engaged in paperwork. But it’s more than just the forms; it’s about the deeply flawed philosophical underpinnings of modern bureaucracy. Let’s explain this.
The worst thing about bureaucracy is how it makes us feel on a purely personal level. Dealing with forms and other bureaucratic processes renders us stupid and helpless. A person cannot help but feel stupid when they are sent around or away by brainless bureaucrats for signing a document in the wrong place. The problem is not just the energy spent dealing with such people but that most of this energy is sunk into trying to understand and influence whoever has bureaucratic power over us at that moment.
By now, it should be evident what is meant by bureaucracy. Yet the language we have to talk about its toxic impact on our lives is not just woefully inadequate but might as well have been designed to make the problem worse. We need to find a way to talk about what we actually object to in this process and speak honestly about the violence it entails. At the same time, we need to understand what is appealing about it, what sustains it, and which elements carry within them some potential for redemption in a truly free society.
Financialization is a process where the financial sector’s influence and power have grown disproportionately compared to other sectors of the economy. The origins can be traced back to various factors, notably the shift in the global economic landscape following World War II, particularly the Bretton Woods conference.
The U.S. emerged from World War II as the world’s dominant economic and military power, with the U.S. dollar becoming the primary reserve currency. This gave American financial institutions significant influence, overshadowing manufacturing and other sectors of the economy, leading to the phenomenon of financialization.
Financialization’s overall effect has been extremely negative, which few people realize. The modern economy has shifted away from productive activities towards speculative and financial activities. The financial sector has developed complex financial instruments far removed from actual economic activities. Financial institutions often control governments and policy decisions, shaping societal priorities and values. Debt has become a means of social and economic control and coercion. Financialization has contributed to growing income inequality and financial instability, leading to social unrest and dissatisfaction.
Another important symptom of rising bureaucracy is credentialism, which places a strong emphasis on formal educational credentials as a way to determine a person’s qualifications, skills, and worth. Credential inflation has led to more people obtaining higher levels of education to compete in the job market, leading to higher degree requirements. Educational qualifications play a significant role in determining job opportunities and social mobility. Credentialism sometimes overshadows an individual’s actual skills and abilities. It can exacerbate social inequality by limiting opportunities for those who cannot afford higher education. The emphasis on credentials leads to rising educational costs and student debt and may result in an oversupply of qualified individuals in some fields. Credentialism reinforces bureaucratic structures, focusing on paperwork over practical skills.
Credentialism is made worse by the modern reality of career advancement, which is often based not on merit, but on complicity and willingness to play along with the fiction that career advancement is based on merit, even though everyone knows it is not true.
The bureaucratization of daily life means the imposition of impersonal rules and regulations, backed up by the threat of force. In this phase of total bureaucratization, we’ve seen security cameras, police scooters, temporary ID cards, and uniformed individuals trained in tactics of intimidation and physical violence.
The term “structural violence” refers to a form of violence embedded in societal structures and systems, causing harm through systemic inequalities. Structural violence operates through systemic inequalities, manifesting as poverty, discrimination, and lack of access to resources. It perpetuates inequalities and oppresses marginalized groups. Rooted in societal organization, including economic systems, laws, policies, and cultural norms, it is seen as a form of social injustice, sustaining unequal power dynamics and harm.
Situations created by structural violence tend to create the kinds of willful blindness associated with bureaucratic procedures. Bureaucratic procedures manage social situations that are already stupid because they are founded on structural violence.
For those of us in our forties and fifties, it is particularly acute to have a feeling of profound disappointment about the nature of the world we live in, a sense of a broken promise of what our adult world was supposed to be like. This feeling is rooted in the absence of “flying cars” and other promised technological advancements.
Technological change is not an independent variable. The pervasive bureaucratization of everyday life made possible by computers is not the result of technological development but the other way around. Bureaucracy has immense power to influence and create the factors shaping technological direction.
The merger of corporate and public bureaucracies brought not just the financialization of society but also impacted technological development. The incredible technological progress since the industrial revolution has also brought countless revolutions, wars, and social upheavals. Public and private bureaucrats, concerned that existing patterns of technological development would lead to more social upheaval, guided technological development in directions that did not challenge existing structures of authority. The decline in truly innovative research since the heyday of Bell Labs and similar corporate research divisions in the fifties and sixties is partly due to changes in tax regimes. Corporate taxes were slashed, and executives began paying profits to investors in dividends or using the money for stock buybacks, rather than investing in research.
Bureaucracy not only impacts individuals but also significantly affects businesses and national competitiveness. The intricate web of rules and regulations can stifle innovation, increase operational costs, and reduce efficiency.
Excessive bureaucracy can slow down decision-making processes, making it difficult for businesses to innovate and respond swiftly to market changes. Compliance with complex regulations often requires significant resources, including time and money. Businesses must invest in legal and administrative support to navigate the regulatory landscape, increasing their operational costs.
Bureaucratic procedures can create bottlenecks in business operations, reducing overall efficiency. The need for multiple approvals and extensive paperwork can delay projects and reduce productivity. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) often find it challenging to comply with extensive regulations, creating barriers to entry. This limits competition and can lead to market monopolies where only large corporations thrive.
Nations with less bureaucratic red tape are more attractive to foreign investors. Excessive bureaucracy can deter investment, impacting a country’s economic growth and global competitiveness.
Bureaucratic environments can be demotivating for employees, affecting a company’s ability to attract and retain top talent. Talented individuals may prefer to work in more dynamic and flexible environments. Bureaucracy can lead to a culture of compliance rather than innovation, where employees focus on meeting regulatory requirements instead of developing new ideas and solutions.
In highly bureaucratic environments, businesses may struggle to adapt to changing market conditions. Agility and innovation are crucial for staying competitive in a fast-paced global market. Companies burdened with excessive regulations may find it challenging to pivot their strategies and innovate effectively. Nations that reduce bureaucratic red tape and foster a more business-friendly environment often attract more foreign investment, driving economic growth and enhancing global competitiveness.
To address the negative impact of bureaucracy, we must reevaluate and rethinkthe role of rules and regulations in our lives. A more human-centric approach to governance and the creation of rules is needed, one that better serves the needs of individuals and businesses.
Here are some steps to improve bureaucracy:
At a personal level, each person has the responsibility to challenge the system of authority without becoming anti-authoritarian. Anti-authoritarian attitudes often stem from historical abuses, the value of individual autonomy, perceptions of injustice and inequality, and cultural and generational factors. To balance respecting the law and authority while remaining vigilant:
To solve the problem of bureaucracy, we must challenge the foundation of our current economic system. Going back to the gold standard is probably not possible, so within the existing landscape, we must think of other ways:
We must address the challenges of credentialism, managerialism, cronyism, and inequality:
Universal Basic Income (UBI) is a compelling concept gaining global attention. UBI involves providing every citizen with regular, unconditional cash payments to cover basic living expenses. By reducing poverty and providing economic security, UBI can act as a safety net in an era of job displacement due to automation. Additionally, it can simplify complex welfare systems, promote healthier lifestyles, enhance access to education, and advance gender equality.
In the context of dismantling the utopia of rules created by bureaucracy, UBI presents an innovative approach. Traditional welfare systems, burdened by bureaucratic oversight and stringent eligibility criteria, reflect the flawed philosophy of bureaucracy. These systems often impose unreasonable demands, echoing the utopian ideal of perfect compliance and efficiency. By contrast, UBI offers a straightforward, rule-free alternative that respects individual autonomy and reduces the administrative burden.
Implementing UBI could help to dismantle the intricate web of bureaucratic rules that govern current welfare systems. It aligns with the goal of creating a more human-centric approach to governance, where rules are reimagined to empower individuals rather than constrain them. By providing unconditional support, UBI can eliminate the need for extensive paperwork and compliance checks, fostering a system that values human dignity and simplifies the delivery of aid.
In this way, UBI not only addresses economic inequalities but also contributes to the broader effort to reduce the oppressive impact of bureaucracy. It represents a tangible step towards creating a society where rules and systems serve the people, rather than the other way around.
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