"The state—or, more precisely, the Communist Party—has no choice but to accommodate this new class because it depends on it to stay in power. And under Communism, the officialdom grows by leaps and bounds for the simple reason that inasmuch as all aspects of national life, the economy very much included, are taken over by the state, it requires a large bureaucracy to administer it. This bureaucracy is the favorite scapegoat of every Communist regime, yet none can manage without it. In the Soviet Union, within a few years of the Bolshevik coup d’état, the regime began to offer unique rewards to its leading cadres, which in time evolved into the nomenklatura, a hereditary privileged caste. This spelled the end of the ideal of equality. Thus to enforce the equality of possessions it is necessary to institutionalize inequality of rights. The contradiction between ends and means is built into Communism and into every country where the state owns all the productive wealth. True, periodic attempts have been made to shake off the grip that the Communist officialdom secured on the state and society. Lenin and Stalin tried purges, which under Stalin led to mass murder. Mao launched his “Cultural Revolution” to destroy entrenched party interests. None of these attempts succeeded. In the end, the nomenklaturas won out because without them nothing would work."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Richard Pipes, Communism: A History (2003)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bureaucracy
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Bureaucracy
47 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Bureaucracy →
Related Quotes
"Le courant des affaires devant toujours s'expédier, il surnage une certaine quantité de commis qui se sait indispensa…"
"The bureaucratic culture which prompts us to view society as an object of administration, as a collection of so many …"
"Bureaucracy is the epoxy that greases the wheels of progress."
"What bosses do: decapitate heads in the name of the freedom of the free markets. It’s bureaucracy terrorism—not diffe…"
"Human bureaucracies, and most alien ones, are slow by design, their response times slowed to a crawl despite all the …"
"The simplest way to explain the behavior of any bureaucratic organization is to assume that it is controlled by a cab…"
"Stupidity multiplies unnecessary procedure, intelligence decreases it; therefore stupidity is the more functional fro…"
"Our society is run by a managerial bureaucracy, by professional politicians; people are motivated by mass suggestion,…"
"Bureaucracy is where fun goes to die."
"In every bureaucratic system the shifting of responsibilities is a matter of daily routine, and if one wishes to defi…"