Bureaucracy is (literally) "clerical domination." From a socio-political point of view, this concept characterizes the process of exercising power by privileged persons chosen by the ruling class. Bureaucracy is a form that has arisen in an exploitative society, in the process of dividing people into classes. At the same time, a state is formed in the structure of which the exploiters put forward their interests as the interests of the people.
Bureaucracy and bureaucracy - a form and method of management through the bureaucracy or officials, divorced from society and standing above it. The characteristic features of this managerial structure are caste, isolation, standardization of duties, formalization, suppression of initiative. According to Marx, bureaucracy is the transformation of government tasks into clerical tasks or vice versa. This managerial form creates its content from formal goals, everywhere in conflict with real goals. Such is the theory of bureaucracy according to Marx.
With the change in socio-economic formations, the managerial form also changed. According to the researchers, the slave system was already characterized by bureaucracy. It was a complex hierarchy of posts and bodies. In the feudal states was also distributed "clerical" apparatus. A special place was given to the church bureaucracy.
However, this form of government has achieved the greatest development in capitalist society. Along with an extensive network of military, police, administrative bodies, in the conditions of this society, political parties, various non-state bourgeois associations arose, which were characterized by the dismemberment of the administrative apparatus.
For pre-capitalist formations, the manifestation of bureaucracy was characteristic only in the political sphere. Subsequently (after the formation of capitalist society) this form actively penetrated into social life.
A special strengthening of the bureaucracy was noted in the imperialist period. For this era, a merger of monopolies and the state apparatus was characteristic . Thus, the state bureaucracy united with the monopoly elite, which contributed to the concentration in its hands of economic and political power. A characteristic feature of this structure is the presence of the so-called "management institute", which was a corporate administration. In fact, it was a new bureaucratic layer. The extreme manifestations of this managerial form are the autocratic structures of the fascist type.
Some sociologists (adherents of the bourgeoisie), who seek to justify the strengthening of bureaucracy in modern capitalism, often refer to the complexity of the managerial structure as a whole and the need to use a hierarchical system, streamlining and rationalization. Thus, the identification of "clerical domination" with the principle of leadership and organization takes place. At the same time, some authors note that the need for the formation of a management structure for different spheres of public life arose at all stages of society and will continue to arise. At the same time, the dominance of the bureaucracy developed in a class society and disappears when the corresponding differences are eliminated.
As sociologists note, the establishment of true democracy is incompatible with "clerical domination." According to Marx, the elimination of bureaucracy becomes feasible provided that the general interest is truly transformed into a special one. In other words, the main thing is to satisfy the needs of the people. Along with this, the elimination of the remnants of the bureaucracy does not occur automatically with the abolition of the form itself. For the complete eradication of all its features, purposeful and systematic work should be carried out.