Question

Define bureaucracy and state its purposes and functions?

Answer 1

Hint:Bureaucracies have four key characteristics-
- An unambiguous Hierarchy.
- Specialization.
- A division of labour.
- A set of rules.

Complete answer:
The meaning of the word 'bureaucracy' is ‘government with a small desk'. This term originated in France in comparison to the small desks used by the king's officials to do king's business. In this modern world the purpose of a bureaucracy is administration of the day-to-day business of a government or society. The government's bureaucracy operates on three levels namely National, State and Local levels. Some of the functions of bureaucracy are as follows:-
Its main work is to implement Governmental Policies and Laws- Government policies and laws can really achieve their target only when these are effectively implemented by the civil servants.
Function of in Policy-Formulation- Civil Servants supply the desired data needed by the political executive to formulate the policies. In fact, Civil servants themselves formulate several alternative policies and describe the pros and cons of each. The Political Executive then selects such policy as the governmental policy.
Function of Running Administration- To tackle the day to day administration in accordance with the policies, laws, rules, regulations and decisions of the government is also the key responsibility of the bureaucracy.
Function of Advisory- One of the main functions of the bureaucracy is to advise the political executive. As qualified, experienced and expert civil servants work in all government departments, they provide expert advice and information to the ministers.
Functions in Legislative Work- The civil servants play an important role in law-making. They draft the bills which are submitted by the ministers in the legislature for law-making.

Note: They perform various types of Semi-judicial Work.
They do the work of Collection of Taxes and Disbursement of Financial Benefits, Record-Keeping.
Performs various roles in Public Relations.