Bureaucracy 101
This term combines the French word for "office" and the Greek suffix meaning "rule or power."
What is bureaucracy?
According to Graeber, bureaucracy expands because each new system inevitably creates these.
What are more problems requiring bureaucratic solutions?
This IU office enforces parking rules and regulations, often issuing tickets.
What is IU Parking Operations?
This sci-fi film portrays an oppressive intergalactic bureaucracy known as the Galactic Empire, where rigid hierarchical structures control every aspect of governance. The Empire enforces strict military rule, regulates trade routes, and operates massive bureaucratic departments like the Imperial Senate and Stormtrooper Corps. However, excessive bureaucracy also weakens its efficiency, leading to rebellion.
What is Star Wars?
This Gotham City institution is heavily tied up in bureaucratic red tape, making it difficult for Batman to fight crime.
What is the Gotham Police Department?
Bureaucracies are designed to function through clear rules, a chain of command, and these specific work designations.
What are roles (or positions)?
Graeber argues that, despite our complaints, we secretly enjoy bureaucracy because of this reason.
What is its predictability and order?
This IU system is used for online class registration, financial aid, and student records.
What is One.IU?
In this dystopian film series, a totalitarian bureaucracy known as the Capitol maintains power through a rigid, systematic control of resources and people. The annual "games" are part of a bureaucratic mechanism to enforce obedience, while officials regulate every district’s economy, media, and law enforcement. The bureaucracy ensures its own survival by using strict procedural rules to prevent rebellion.
What is The Hunger Games?
This district attorney fights to bring justice to Gotham but is ultimately consumed by the system’s corruption.
Who is Harvey Dent (or Two-Face)?
A major downside of bureaucracy is that it can feel slow and complicated due to these rigid procedures.
What are rules and regulations?
In history, successful invaders often had to rely on local bureaucracies to manage new territories, as seen in this Asian empire.
What is the Chinese Empire (or the Mandarin system)?
IU's public transportation system follows strict predetermined routes to maximize efficiency.
What is the IU Campus Bus Service?
This fantasy film highlights a wizarding government agency that enforces magical laws through strict rules, paperwork, and trials. The Ministry of Magic’s bureaucracy is highly inefficient, slow to respond to real threats, and often prioritizes politics over justice. The rise of an oppressive regime within the Ministry shows how bureaucracies can be manipulated to serve authoritarian goals.
What is Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix? (Or Harry Potter)
The Joker's philosophy is a direct challenge to bureaucracy because he embraces this instead.
What is chaos (or anarchy)?
Max Weber, a famous sociologist, described bureaucracy as an "iron cage" because of this reason.
What is its ability to trap individuals in a system of impersonal rules and procedures?
Graeber compares bureaucracy to this type of "magic" because it makes things appear seamless when working correctly.
What is poetic technology?
When registering for classes, students must follow these pre-set requirements based on their major or minor.
What are degree requirements (or prerequisites)?
This animated film satirizes corporate bureaucracy by portraying a villain obsessed with regulations, uniformity, and control. He enforces strict rules, eliminates creativity, and even uses a "superglue" weapon to keep everything in perfect order. The film critiques how bureaucratic systems can stifle innovation and individuality in the name of efficiency.
What is The Lego Movie?
Bruce Wayne exploits this aspect of corporate bureaucracy to gain access to surveillance over Gotham.
What is Lucius Fox’s technological division (or Wayne Enterprises R&D)?
This government agency, frequently referenced in critiques of bureaucracy, is responsible for processing tax returns in the U.S.
What is the IRS (Internal Revenue Service)?
The reading discusses how this modern communication tool mirrors historical postal bureaucracies in both promise and pitfalls. What tool is it referring to?
What is the Internet?
Each year, IU students must complete this form to maintain their federal financial aid eligibility.
What is the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid)?
In this animated film, humanity lives under a fully automated bureaucratic system run by artificial intelligence. Citizens rely on automated assistants and robots for everything, while a faceless bureaucratic machine dictates their lifestyles, health, and daily routines. When a human intervenes, he struggles against a rigid system designed to prevent any deviation from protocol.
What is WALL-E?
Bureaucracy plays a major role in delaying action against crime in Gotham because of this legal hurdle preventing officials from acting decisively.
What are due process and legal restrictions?