Bureaucracy enables envy, envy begets bureaucracy

The classic explanation of growing bureaucracy inside an organization is that the people who benefit from the processes (i.e., bureaucrats) have an interest in perpetuating the growth.

This is probably true, incentives are superpowers and all that. I’d like to add an often neglected point to the discussion: people who don’t benefit — who hate the bureaucratic processes — also push for more bureaucracy.

Here’s an analogy.

During the 2008 housing crisis, many Americans were furious that their neighbors might receive mortgage relief they themselves didn’t get. This resentment helped fuel the Tea Party movement. The same psychology applies elsewhere: “I had to work hard, why should others get UBI?” Or: “I suffered through a brutal exam, so future lawyers should too.” And it applies to bureaucratic processes too.

Being denied something by bureaucracy creates a kind of mini trauma, one that resurfaces when people see others slipping through gaps the bureaucracy hasn’t yet reached. The people then pressure the powers that be to close the gap, to formalize the exception, to make others suffer the same process.

Of course, there are legitimate reasons to formalize things. But we should also admit that ‘this isn’t fair to the group’ often masks ‘this isn’t fair to me’.