different between bureaucracy vs mandarinate

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.

English

Etymology

From French mandarinat, corresponding to mandarin +? -ate.

Noun

mandarinate (plural mandarinates)

1. (obsolete) The status of holding a position as a mandarin. [18th–19th c.]
2. The collective body of mandarins. [from 19th c.]
   • 2016, Christopher Goscha, The Penguin History of Modern Vietnam, Penguin 2017, p. 101:

     He criticized the monarchy and the mandarinate for failing to save the country and to help the people in their hour of greatest need.

3. A political form of rule by mandarins.
4. (figuratively) A type of government marked by excessive bureaucracy and Byzantine regulations.
   • 2011, Ian Buruma, Europe without Turkey:

     Far from being a model of democracy, the EU is associated with an arrogant, out-of-touch mandarinate that issues rules and edicts with paternalistic and highhanded disregard for ordinary citizens.

Translations