Governments make policy and pass laws but they are not involved in the routine implementation and daily administration of policy. For this, they rely on government ministries and the army of state bureaucrats who work in them. Like armies, the bureaucracy ranges from a small handful of very top officials down to office workers who carry out the daily work. The jobs of the highest officials (in the civil service, sometimes called ‘mandarins’, after the top officials of the ancient Chinese bureaucracy) are little different from those of the chief executive officers (CEOs) of multi-national corporations in the private sector, while many of the lower ranks are known as ‘street-level bureaucrats’ because they come into everyday contact with the general public.

Whether they are mandarins or filing clerks, state bureaucrats are sometimes seen as lazy and inefficient, but alongside this stereotype there exists a completely different one that views bureaucrats as ambitious empire builders who want to expand their own departments in the interests of their own status and salary, and who conspire to take over the policy making function of politicians to make sure that things are run according to the bureaucrats' wishes.

These contradictory images highlight an ambivalence that permeates the public bureaucracy. On the one hand, no democracy could even exist without effective bureaucracies to implement public policies and deliver public services.