I make no secret of my dislike of bureaucracy and have written previous posts about it. It doesn’t matter what period of time you look at, while the term “bureaucracy” is relatively modern, the fact of it dates back thousands of years. I wouldn’t be terribly surprised if in caveman drawings, there wasn’t some sort of rule laid down as to whom could draw on which rock. Anyway, I agree with needing structure and processes for many things. The overriding issues when dealing with bureaucrats tends to fall into two categories. The first is confusing processes that normal people can’t understand. This comes about for a number of reasons and range from annoying to downright out-dated. The second, more insidious aspect is power, be it petty or masking potential corruption. Let us not deal with the potential corruption part. Sadly, there are plenty of people in the world who desire power in any form they can get it. Therefore, if an individual needs a service and the bureaucrat in question can deny that for whatever reason, the bureaucrat may choose to do so “just because they can”. On the other hand, there are situations that seem absurd and fall into the category of something that was once valid, but no longer is. The example here is when someone is required to fill a form out using “Black pen only”. Why should that matter? Back when copiers were not as sophisticated as today, ink colors other than black would not show up well in copies. In many cases, this is no longer important, but no one has taken the time to go change the rules.

So, if faced with a situation where a bureaucratic response seems wrong, the first step is find what the actual processes and requirements are. There is also the possibility the bureaucrat is simply interpreting something incorrectly. In either case, if the processes and rules are written in difficult to understand language or in a lengthy document, it often discourages an individual from pursuing the point. I’m not going to say that’s deliberate, but it is effective. Anyone who takes on such a task needs to be prepared to persevere. Changes can be made and battles can be won, but it will rarely be easy.