He was right you know. It is the way of all bureaucracies.
As early as the 1930s Parkinson had successfully predicted that the Royal Navy would eventually have more admirals than ships.
C. Northcote Parkinson
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Of course, Parkinson was an astute observer and an excellent aphorist. But, to actually understand bureaucracy (both its excellence and its shortcomings) is virtually impossible to anyone who has not read and digested BUREAUCRACY, a lesser-known work of Ludwig von Mises.
It’s difficult to describe just how thoroughly understandable (and predictable) this book makes its subject. I recommend it to anyone interested in such matters; a further recommendation is the fact that it’s just 125 pocket-book-sized pages and that it can be read free at mises.org.
The core message is that expansion of bureaucracy and its creativity-and-initiative-stifling methods result, not
from size or complexity (as might be gathered reading Parkinson subsequent business-oriented writers) but is, rather, inextricably linked to socialist economic interventionism.
Once you’ve read it, you’ll recognize that you know(and know you know) virtually all
there is on the subject.
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