different between bureaucracy vs bureaucrat

English

Alternative forms

• bureaucratie
• bureau-ocracy (dated)
• burocracy (American)

Etymology

bureau +? -cracy, from French bureaucratie, coined by Jean Claude Marie Vincent de Gournay from bureau (“office”) + -cratie (“rule of”)

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /bj?????k??si/
• (US) IPA^(key): /bj?????k??si/

Noun

bureaucracy (countable and uncountable, plural bureaucracies)

1. Government by bureaus or their administrators or officers.
2. (business, 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.

3. The body of officers and administrators, especially of a government.

4. Excessive red tape and routine in any administration, body or behaviour.

Derived terms

• bureaucrat
• bureaucratese
• bureaucratic
• bureaucratically

Translations

See also

• adhocracy

Further reading

• "bureaucracy" in Raymond Williams, Keywords (revised), 1983, Fontana Press, page 49.

For Wiktionary's bureaucrats, see Wiktionary:Bureaucrats

English

Etymology

From French bureaucrate.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?bj????k?æt/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?bj???k?æt/
• Hyphenation: bu?reau?crat

Noun

bureaucrat (plural bureaucrats)

1. An official who is part of a bureaucracy.
2. (Wiktionary and WMF jargon) A wiki user with the right to change user access levels.

Usage notes

The term bureaucrat, while often used in a professional and respectful manner, is oftentimes disdained by those who work in organizations, especially governmental organizations. This is due to connotations of rigidity, indifference, and especially laziness that the term can sometimes connote (the latter especially reflected in the oft-repeated derisive term lazy bureaucrat). As a result, many workers in organizations, especially governmental ones, prefer terms such as manager, public manager, civil servant, public servant, public official, etc.

Synonyms

• See Thesaurus:bureaucrat

Derived terms

Related terms

• bureaucracy

Translations