Ivan Illich

The telephone lets anybody say what he wants to the person of his choice; he can conduct business, express love, or pick a quarrel. It is impossible for bureaucrats to define what people say to each other on the phone, even though they can interfere with - or protect - the privacy of their exchange.

American Sociologist

Anne Applebaum

Global pandemics, cyberwarfare, information warfare - these are threats that require highly motivated, highly educated bureaucrats; a national health-care system that covers the entire population; public schools that train students to think both deeply and flexibly; and much more.

American Journalist

Milton Friedman

The world runs on individuals pursuing their self interests. The great achievements of civilization have not come from government bureaus. Einstein didn't construct his theory under order from a, from a bureaucrat. Henry Ford didn't revolutionize the automobile industry that way.

American Economist

Matthew Lesko

I can't help thinking if she - the director of a government agency - is this ignorant about what funding is available and where the money comes from - how often lower-level bureaucrats must give wrong answers when people are looking for help to start a business.

American Entertainer

Rajeev Shukla

People change their opinion according to your position. And both politicians and bureaucrats begin to take you more seriously, as they suddenly feel you have become more important.

Indian Politician

John Sununu

Bureaucrats behave very differently than a private-sector manager because their motivations are different. Permanent bureaucrats, no matter how senior, worry about their next job.

American Politician

Thomas Sowell

Mystical references to society and its programs to help may warm the hearts of the gullible but what it really means is putting more power in the hands of bureaucrats.

Sydney Brenner

The supporters now, the bureaucrats of science, do not wish to take any risks. So in order to get it supported, they want to know from the start that it will work.

British Scientist

Curt Weldon

How can faceless bureaucrats in an intelligence agency deny brave soldiers a chance to tell the truth?

Karl Marx

For the bureaucrat, the world is a mere object to be manipulated by him.

German Philosopher

Can suggest inefficiency or overcomplication due to strict rules; not always seen positively.

Negative Connotation

Refers to people within large organizations, highlighting their role within impersonal structures.

Impersonal Systems

Bureaucrats can hold power in decision-making processes, even if not elected.

Power and Decision

 know what you say right now there's no way this guy's going to stand up here and make a case for the DMV well I don't know about you but I do not want to live in a world where harsh fluorescent lights endless lines terrible forms to fill out and disaffected soulless bureaucrat remind me that I am pretty

A funny look at the...

 Not in the medical world. I suppose the funding bureaucrats ultimately have to get their act together. They've really got to start talking to each other, and exercise a bit of imagination, if that's not too much to ask. Which it probably is. I've coined the phrase "obstructive conservatism."

Tal Golesworthy: How I...

 and let it out, because in your life, there's going to be information that leaks out you're not going to like. Somebody's going to get my college grades out, a that's going to be a disaster. But it's going to be okay, and I will tell you that I am more scared of the bureaucrat

Stanley McChrystal: The...

 They don't really have the data they need in order to identify emerging threats facing the regime. So encouraging people to actually go online and share information and data on blogs and wikis is great because otherwise, low level apparatchiks and bureaucrats

Evgeny Morozov: How the...

 or keeping tabs, if you will. What they are is an addition of tadpoles that are named after a local bureaucrat whose decisions affect your water quality. So an impatient concerned for water quality would raise a tadpole bureaucrat

Natalie Jeremijenko:...

 to people we have never met. And we should get rid of the vast industry of paternalistic bureaucrats when we could simply hand over their salaries to the poor they're supposed to help. Because, I mean, the great thing about money

Poverty isn't a lack of...

 But imagine if instead, the Patent Office became a dynamic center for citizen learning and ingenuity, staffed not just by technical experts and bureaucrats, but also by great public-health storytellers with a passion for science.

Why are drug prices so...

 and make a case for the DMV." Well, I don't know about you, but I do not want to live in a world where harsh fluorescent lights, endless lines, terrible forms to fill out and disaffected, soulless bureaucrats remind me

 none of which has an ambulance. So, the four-wheel drive vehicles at the headquarters drive the ministers, the permanent secretaries, the bureaucrats and the international aid bureaucrats who work in aid projects,

Andrew Mwenda: Let's...

 Academics love them. So do lawyers, bureaucrats, business writers. I call them zombie nouns, because they consume the living. They cannibalize active verbs, they suck the lifeblood from adjectives,