Law

=== Bureaucracy ===
{{main|Bureaucracy}}
[[File:Yamen-sitzung.jpg|thumb|The [[Mandarin (bureaucrat)|mandarin]]s were powerful bureaucrats in imperial China (photograph shows a [[Qing dynasty]] official with [[mandarin square]] visible).]]
The etymology of ''bureaucracy'' derives from the French word for ''office'' (''bureau'') and the [[Ancient Greek]] for word ''power'' (''kratos'').<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=bureaucracy&searchmode=none |title=bureaucracy |access-date=2 September 2007 |work=Online Etymology Dictionary |archive-date=15 January 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090115180219/http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=bureaucracy&searchmode=none |url-status=live}}</ref>{{Better source needed|reason=etymonline is not reliable source by any stretch of the imagination ([[WP:NOTRS]]).|date=August 2023}} Like the military and police, a legal system's government servants and bodies that make up its bureaucracy carry out the directives of the executive. One of the earliest references to the concept was made by [[Friedrich Melchior, baron von Grimm|Baron de Grimm]], a German author who lived in France. In 1765, he wrote:
<blockquote>The real spirit of the laws in France is that bureaucracy of which the late Monsieur de Gournay used to complain so greatly; here the offices, clerks, secretaries, inspectors and ''intendants'' are not appointed to benefit the public interest, indeed the public interest appears to have been established so that offices might exist.{{sfn|Albrow|1970|p=16}}</blockquote>

Cynicism over "officialdom" is still common, and the workings of public servants is typically contrasted to [[private enterprise]] motivated by [[Maximization (economics)|profit]].<ref>Mises, ''Bureaucracy'', II, [https://www.mises.org/etexts/mises/bureaucracy/section2.asp Bureaucratic Management] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140914004054/https://www.mises.org/etexts/mises/bureaucracy/section2.asp |date=14 September 2014 }}</ref> In fact private companies, especially large ones, also have bureaucracies.{{sfn|Kettl|2006|p=367}} Negative perceptions of "[[red tape]]" aside, public services such as schooling, health care, policing or public transport are considered a crucial state function making public bureaucratic action the locus of government power.{{sfn|Kettl|2006|p=367}}

Writing in the early 20th century, Max Weber believed that a definitive feature of a developed state had come to be its bureaucratic support.<ref>Weber, ''Economy and Society'', I, 393</ref> Weber wrote that the typical characteristics of modern bureaucracy are that officials define its mission, the scope of work is bound by rules, and management is composed of career experts who manage top down, communicating through writing and binding public servants' discretion with rules.{{sfn|Kettl|2006|p=371}}