bureaucracy

• bureaucratie
• bureau-ocracy (dated)

bureau +‎ -cracy, from French bureaucratie, coined by Jean Claude Marie Vincent de Gournay (died 1759) from bureau (“office”) + -cratie (“rule of”)

• (UK) IPA^(key): /bjʊəˈɹɒkɹəsi/
• (US) IPA^(key): /bjʊˈɹɑːkɹəsi/

bureaucracy (countable and uncountable, plural bureaucracies)

1. Government by bureaus or their administrators or officers.
2. (business, organizational theory) A system of administration based upon organisation into bureaus, division of labour, a hierarchy of authority, etc., designed to dispose of a large body of work in a routine manner.
3. The body of officers and administrators, especially of a government.
4. Any administration, body, or behavior characterised by excessive red tape and routine.

• bureaucrat
• bureaucratese
• bureaucratic
• bureaucratically

• adhocracy

• "bureaucracy" in Raymond Williams, Keywords (revised), 1983, Fontana Press, page 49.