chapter 19
...................................................................................................................................................PUBLIC
BUREAUCRACIES
...................................................................................................................................................donald f. kettl
Although government’s other institutions frame basic public policy, its bureaucra-
cies have always been responsible for carrying it out. In fact, bureaucracy predates
most of the institutions of modern democratic government. When Moses organized
the tribes of Israel for their departure from Pharaoh’s rule, he organized them into a
simple bureaucracy as he sought to build them into a new nation. Millennia later, the
Romans institutionalized aWghting force that terriWed their enemies. The centurion
commanded eighty men, which gathered into legions, and which led to the conquest
of most of the known world. The locus of government action has long been in public
bureaucracies. It is one thing for government oYcials to make decisions. It is quite
another for them to carry out them out. Stalin famously mocked the Pope, sarcas-
tically asking, ‘‘How many divisions does he have?’’ Government power is bureau-
cratic power, whether the bureaucracy is the military or another agency.
The term ‘‘bureaucracy’’ has deep roots. Its origin lies in the French word,
bureau, at least as far back as the 1300 s. The king’s administrators brought their
Wnancial records to a special room, the Chamber of Accounts, and laid them out on
brown woolen cloth, know asla bure. In time, they came to call the room the
‘‘bureau,’’ and ‘‘bureaucracy’’ was born. Since then, bureaucracy has acquired a
wide variety of meanings, some highly negative (‘‘that’s just so bureaucratic!’’).
More generally, however, ‘‘bureaucracy’’ refers to the complex organizations
assigned to perform speciWc tasks. Its historical roots and most common usage