Editorial
In his book, particularly Nexus, historian Yuval Noah Harari views Bureaucracy through an unconventional lens. Rather than treating bureaucracy as a set of rigid government structures, he defines it fundamentally as a mechanism for organizing chaos into order through information retrieval and data management. Read again: Information and Data Management.
He notes that “bureaucracy” literally means “rule by writing desk,” tracing the roots of the word to 18th-century France, a bureau. A desk contains a lot of files and data over it. These files possess the legislative bills, technical details, and summaries of ongoing projects. An office of a bureaucrat works as a filter: any summary file, PPT, and even legislative bills require approvals from the permanent bureaucracy.
Bureaucracy also functions as a gatekeeper to the government services. Filing an application for electricity, requesting a domicile, and pleading for the issuance of a degree from the government institute—all processes require bureaucratic approvals.
In his book, The Bureaucratic Coup, author Mahmood Tariq Awan notes, “Bureaucracy doesn’t regulate the sector. It restructures it. Every economic transaction in Pakistan requires administrative approval at multiple points. Every significant economic transaction in Pakistan requires administrative approval at multiple points.”
In Pakistan, the bureaucracy controls information. Every file, PPT, and summary has to pass through the bureaucratic office before it reaches the office of the minister of political executive.
In this age of information, who controls the flow of information controls power. Bureaucracy controls each file, whether in the administration or in the corporate sector.
