"Efficient bureaucrats can be more deadly than disorganized fanatics".
- from Julian Jackson, France on Trial: The Case of Marshall Petain.
Jackson is also the author of an outstanding biography of Charles de Gaulle, a brilliant, brave, infuriating, and enigmatic figure.
The above observation comes after this passage:
"When asked how he could justify Vichy's measures against Jews and freemasons, Peyrouton, who had been a high ranking colonial administrator under the Republic, told the court: 'I did not ask myself this kind of question. I have told you, and I repeat: I am not a Republican; I am not an anti-Republican. I am an agent of the French government.'"
Another side to this occurs when the bureaucrats through manipulation take on the operation of government themselves (see, for instance, Yes Prime Minister, the classic BBC series). Several years ago I was at a Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) conference in Phoenix which included attending an Arizona Fall League game. At the game I ended up sitting next to a recently retired guy who spent his career as a high ranking civil servant at the US Department of Agriculture. At one point I asked for more details about his job was and he responded, "to make sure the political appointees did not make any important decisions". Just being efficient, in his view.
One of my favorite book series is C.P. Snow’s Strangers and Brothers series. It follows a British man, Lewis Elliott, from when he is a poor young man from a provincial town to his role as a professor at a college, and finally to serving in the British bureaucracy. Britain is organized differently than America, of course, but his depiction of the role the bureaucrats play in both creating and supporting policy (regardless of party affiliation) is captured extremely well in the book Corridors of Power, from that series.
ReplyDeleteOf course, without a “professionalized” civil service, there was widespread patronage, which frequently led to its own forms of corruption.
I read the Strangers and Brothers series many, many years ago. I remember enjoying it but don't remember much of the substance. Perhaps it is time for a reread.
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