Thought For The Day
- Donald R. McClarey
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 43 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
Bravo on the use of Yes Prime Minister! I often quote it and no one ever knows where it is from. A jewel of a show and it came into sharp relief when we started hearing about the Deep State 9-10 years ago. Sir Humphrey was the epitome of such an arrangement.
“Well, shouldn’t the voters have a say in a democracy?”
“This is a BRITISH democracy!”
Pithy. The trouble is, beyond a certain scale of operations, there is no such thing as a non-bureaucratic organization. Also, you should be meticulous about procedure. If the organization loses sight of results, what is your response to that as a matter of policy?
Art Deco is correct. I have worked in nuclear power for 40 plus years. Procedure compliance was something Admiral Hyman Rickover drilled into all of us. Those procedures are usually developed because some damn fool sailor like me made a dumb idiot expensive and sometimes injurious mistake. In my industry, when you don’t follow procedure, usually very bad things happen.
That said, the regulatory strangulation of the nuclear power industry by the US NRC is a prime reason for the need of the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
As I learned in MPA class: management is one thing, leadership another. Managers aren’t supposed to do what’s not in the book; leaders get to write the book, etc.
Bureaucracy as adept at ordinary circumstances as the leadership that created it allows it to be.
Creating bureaucracy is like computer programming. Instructions are given for the likely scenarios.
Leadership is what is needed in creating bureaucracy that makes sense and in addressing the scenarios that are not likely.
Does it work? Depends on the bureaucrats, depends on the leadership.
Like computer programming, garbage in – garbage out!
“In any bureaucratic organization there will be two kinds of people: First, there will be those who are devoted to the goals of the organization. Examples are dedicated classroom teachers in an educational bureaucracy, many of the engineers and launch technicians and scientists at NASA, even some agricultural scientists and advisors in the former Soviet Union collective farming administration. Secondly, there will be those dedicated to the organization itself. Examples are many of the administrators in the education system, many professors of education, many teachers union officials, much of the NASA headquarters staff, etc. The Iron Law states that in every case the second group will gain and keep control of the organization. It will write the rules, and control promotions within the organization.” — Jerry Pournelle
Middle management and too much of it is where the problem is. If you can make a role redundant without affecting the operation of an organisation then that role is dead weight. Get rid of it.
Ezabelle:
Exactly right about middle management.
With too many layers, even clear plastic wrap is no longer transparent.
With the words of the excellent Thomas Sowell in mind, and after having read the observations of my fellow commenters, I invite everyone here to reflect on our own USCCB and its achievements (or the lack thereof)…
With the words of the excellent Thomas Sowell in mind, and after having read the observations of my fellow commenters, I invite everyone here to reflect on our own USCCB and its achievements (or the lack thereof)…
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The problem with the Conference of Catholic Bishops is that it has no function other than to provide employment for its staff. The rest is busywork. Diocesan chanceries may have scads of positions you could eliminate, but there are serious functions for chanceries (which they may or may not be performing).
It seems the USCCB has a function.
It is unity, unity, unity.
Perhaps better expressed as uniformity.
Its effects are similar to those of a convoy, which requires travel to slow to the speed of the worst ship. The unity demanded hampers the performance of the best ships. Which is why convoys are not used except in direst emergency.
I thought the function of the USCCB was to collect and redistribute government grants.
The purpose of any bureaucracy is to fight to perpetuate its existence.
The Pennsylvania Turnpike was financed with bonds and tolls were collected to pay the debt. It opened in 1940. In 2025 the Pennsylvania Turnpike is alleged to have the highest tolls in the US. It is over $10 billion in debt.
Agencies such as those whose existence is to provide some help for situations like I am in with my oldest son are the same.
I can go on about state insurance departments and their governing body.