For once I quite agree with a Times leader. In connection with the latest British NHS scandal it points out that large bureaucracies always tend to aggregate power to the bureaucrats with power flowing away from the people. Just a word of explanation from me: this applies to any large bureaucracy. Whether it’s any government department (you name it), church (say Magdelen laundries, etc), corporation (say latest business or finance scandal or eco-disaster), trade union (say corruption scandal or political strikes, etc),…you get the idea.
The only other point is a bit of Wittgensteinian jiggery-pokery: ‘private bureaucracy’ is at least a strange term, if not a definite logical contradiction. In short, the public/private argument is irrelevant, large-scale bureaucrats are the same in all times, places, and organisations.

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