bureaucracies

Noun

bureaucracy (countable and uncountable, plural bureaucracies)

1. Government by bureaus or their administrators or officers.
   • However, when Britain left the European Union, ferries started to ply a direct sea link from Ireland, to save hauliers from custom's bureaucracy of driving via Britain.2021 December 29, Philip Haigh, “Rail's role in unifying Great Britain and Northern Ireland”, in RAIL, number 947, page 25
2. (organizational theory) A system of administration based upon organisation into bureaus, division of labour, a hierarchy of authority, etc., designed to dispose of a large body of work in a routine manner.
   • At that time the administration replaced the system of patronage in the civil service with a bureaucracy.
3. The body of officers and administrators, especially of a government.
   • The bureaucracy is expanding to meet the needs of the expanding bureaucracy. (apocryphal quip)
4. (derogatory) Excessive red tape and routine in any administration, body or behaviour.
   • The head of the civil service promised to clamp down on bureaucracy.

   Synonyms:

   papyrocracy