The Growth of Administrative Problems

Many administrators experience the feeling that the amount of paperwork they need to deal with increases substantially through time; that the number of difficult problems that need to be dealt with never diminishes no matter how fast one solves them. In [Boynton 19801, a model is developed for the growth of bureaucracy as measured by the number of laws (or rules or regulations) that are in effect in the United States government. Under very reasonable assumptions, it is shown that the number of laws experiences exponential growth. Part of the explanation for this result is that while new laws are created, laws that have been in effect remain in effect, i.e., are not removed, so the process is clearly one of growth. Growth is effected by essentially two items: new laws coming into effect and old laws being reinterpreted because of changing circumstances.