I'm with Fred on this one.  I'm fond of pointing out that the most efficient form of governance is a benevolent dictatorship -- as long as its concept of benevolence agrees with yours.  Bureaucracies don't/can't operate quickly, and are often burdened with requirements that -- although they were created to address a specific problem in the past -- now create barriers to nimble decision-making.  HOWEVER, they can also be our best protection against abuses of power (which is, I suspect, why the Chinese starting using them 2,000 years ago).

There was something apropos that Stephen J. Gould once said about bureaucracies (that I can't seem to find right now).  His point was that there's a non-obvious benefit to administrative structures that are difficult to work with: sometimes you get very creative and come up with a marvelous new approach, " ... as an end-run around intransigence ..." ( I remember that phrase).

As always, this is one woman's opinion.


Pilar C. McAdam, CRM
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Los Angeles, CA


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