"Wait...what is a bureaucrat?"
If you're confused by this concept, you are not alone! I get asked this question all of the time. That's great, because it means I have plenty of experience explaining this tricky question from AP World History. Today, we're going to dive into all things bureaucracy. What is it? How does it work? Why do we care?
Table of Contents
The Basics
Definition
A bureaucrat is a government official. These government officials carry out specific tasks and are typically not elected. Bureaucrats collect taxes, keep records, do research, plan infrastructure projects, along with dozens of other things. These jobs all have one thing in common: they help the government run on a day-to-day basis.
A bureaucracy refers to three things.
- First, it refers to all bureaucrats as a group. This use is similar to the way you may refer to a pod of whales or a pride of lions. We have a different word that refers to the group as a whole.
- Bureaucracy can also refer to the group and the rules, codes, and principles bureaucrats follow. One of the key traits of a modern bureaucracy is that the system should use impartial rules to make decisions. This doesn't always happen, but it's a guiding principle.
- Lastly, a bureaucracy can refer to a government that has an extensive, well, bureaucracy.
One last note about bureaucrats and bureaucracies. "Bureaucrat" sometimes has a negative ring. It can be used to characterize someone as overly rigid, out-of-touch, or too focused on the rules. Similarly, thing may be characterized as "bureaucratic." This often implies that the speaker feels a process is too slow, complicated, or ineffective.
In AP World, "bureaucrat" and "bureaucracy" aren't used with any of this baggage. I'm not imply inefficiency, incompetence, or red tape, though those things may exist. It simply describes a group of people with a type of job, like plumbers or architects.
Carrying Out the Law
In a democracy there are typically multiple branches of government (thanks Enlightenment). The bureaucracy is typically part of the executive branch. You may recall that the job of the executive branch is to "see that the laws get done." In other words, the executive branch carries out laws.
You may associate the executive branch with the president, but in reality, the president isn't collecting taxes, researching new medical inventions, or distributing money to a highway building project. Those things are done by bureaucrats.
In a monarchy the bureaucracy typically answers to the ruler. The ruler makes the law, and then they hire people to carry out their wishes. This makes the bureaucracy loyal to the ruler. In many monarchical governments, the bureaucracy serves as a check on the powers of nobles and landed elites. More on that later.
Common Traits
Every bureaucracy looks a little different. Here are some things that most bureaucracies have in common:
- They are primarily focused on day-to-day tasks, which are often administrative or management jobs. This includes record-keeping, overseeing projects, collecting taxes, and so on. The word "bureau" is French for desk. Not all bureaucrats work at desks, but it helpful to think of most of these jobs as jobs that oversee or plan activities of the government.
- Bureaucrats are typically hired or appointed to their jobs. Jobs in the bureaucracy are typically not passed down through families (hereditary positions) or voted on (elected positions).
- Bureaucrats are expected to make decisions using a common and established set of rules, laws, or principles.
- Bureaucrats are often expected to display loyalty to a greater cause. In a monarchy, this is often loyalty to the monarch (who gave them the jobs in the first place). In democracies, it is often framed as loyalty or service to the country or it's people. This is why many bureaucracies refer to themselves as "public servants" or a part of the "civil service."
An IRL Example
It can be tricky to connect abstract definitions with real life. So let's look at a specific, more familiar example: school.
Schools have two basic goals:
- To provide a safe place for students to go during the day.
- To encourage learning and growth.
Accomplishing these tasks is more complicated than saying them. Let's consider the first thing a school has to do every day: get the students to school. This process looks different in different parts of the country. For simplicity, let's focus on a school that uses busses to help the majority of its students arrive at school for simplicity.
In order to run a bus system effectively, someone needs to do all of the following:
- Put out ads for qualified bus drivers.
- Interview and completed background checks on the bus drivers.
- Onboard and train the bus drivers
- Purchase new school busses.
- Put out adds for qualified bus mechanics.
- Interview, onboard, and train the bus mechanics.
- Hire people to maintain the building or grounds the busses are stored on when not in use.
- Determine what routes the busses should take.
- Follow up on any student misbehavior that occurs on the busses.
- Communicate routes and policies to parents and students.
All of these tasks are typically done by various administrators and managers who work for the school. The superintendent, principals, head custodian, and direct of the bus garage are all hired to accomplish these tasks. They plan and carry out day-to-day tasks that keep the system running. We hope they will use objective standards and rules to make fair decisions. They work for a government organization. They often talk about their jobs as a form of service to students, the community, or society.
In short, they are all bureaucrats.
In AP World History
Themes
Bureaucrats are most closely associated with the AP World History theme of governance (political organization). This is because of the role they play in planning, organizing, and carrying out government activities. They often make up a large portion of the people who work for the government. You can safely mention them as examples in prompts that focus on politics or governments.
Aspects of bureaucracies fit in other categories. For example, China's scholar bureaucrats formed a distinct social class. This could be relevant in a prompt dealing with social structures. Chinese bureaucratic practices also spread to neighboring countries, like Korea and Vietnam. This is an example of cultural diffusion.
(If you need a quick refresher on the AP World History themes, click here.)
Imperial China (Units 1 and 2)
The Chinese were one of the first groups of people to create an extensive, professional bureaucracy. The first year covered in AP World History is 1200 CE. By this time, China had a bureaucracy for several hundred years. The Chinese system gets significant coverage in AP World History because of it's age. It is also significant because China influenced other country's adoption of similar systems.
The Song Dynasty ruled southeastern China in 1200 CE. They continued several practices used by earlier dynasties.
- They embraced Confucianism. Confucius lived well before this time period, but his ideas were influential long after his death. Confucius encouraged learning and education. He also proposed that the government should be run by the most educated people.
- The Song Dynasty kept the tradition of using civil service exams to determine who was qualified for government jobs. A higher score on these exams led to a higher-level job in the government. This was another idea promoted by Confucius. It's not surprising that his ideas made up a significant proportion of the questions on the exam.
There are several terms that refer to bureaucrats working for various Chinese emperors. Most often, you'll see a description of their role or social status. This includes scholar gentry, scholar officials, and scholar bureaucrats. Let's break these terms down.
- Scholar is often used because extensive education was required to excel on the civil service exams.
- Gentry refers to elites who owned land in China.
You may also see the word mandarin. This word comes from a mix of Malaysian and Portuguese terms for scholars and government officials.
Chinese ideas about how bureaucracies should work have been very influential. China has traditionally been the economic and political powerhouse of East Asia and the Pacific Ocean.
This helped their system of bureaucracy spread for several reasons.
- Economic power often allows a country to intentionally spread their ideas. Trade helps spread cultural ideas. People meet to exchange goods, and then discuss other topics while their at it. Scholarship also requires funding. A wealthy country can pay researchers, build places for scholars to gather, and attract people from distant places.
- Political power can also be used to spread cultural ideas. Military invasions can bring new ideas to new places.
- Neighboring countries often adopt the cultural and political practices of more powerful countries. This helps legitimize their rule by association. It also means they can use a system that's been proven to work. That saves the time and effort that would be needed to develop your own system.
In East Asia, Korea and Vietnam adopted similar systems. This included the Confucian philosophical ideas, civil service exams, and a large bureaucracy.
The influence of these practices goes far beyond classical and medieval Asia. China this system for seven hundred years after the Song Dynasty collapsed. Europeans had more direct contact with Chinese people beginning in the 1500s. Enlightenment philosophers picked up the idea of bureaucracy, and it became part of their demands for change. Not long after, the US and several European countries adopted some form of civil service exam. That still exists today in the US!
Oh, and Mandarin Chinese is the most commonly spoken first language in the world. There are over a billion people today who learned Mandarin as their native language. No other language even comes close. Why? Well, in part because it was used by educated, influential mandarins in a prosperous and influential country.
Centralized Government (Unit 3)
Coming Soon!
Modern Bureaucracies (Units 5+)
Coming Soon!
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