Bureaucracy has proliferated under neoliberal capitalism rather than vanishing with it

Evidence

In making their case against socialism, neoliberal ideologues often excoriated the top-down bureaucracy which supposedly led to institutional sclerosis and inefficiency in command economies. With the triumph of neoliberalism, bureaucracy was supposed to have been made obsolete; a relic of an unlamented Stalinist past. Yet this is at odds with the experiences of most people working and living in late capitalism, for whom bureaucracy remains very much a part of everyday life. Instead of disappearing, bureaucracy has changed its form; and this new, decentralized, form has allowed it to proliferate. The persistence of bureaucracy in late capitalism does not in itself indicate that capitalism does not work – rather, what it suggests is that the way in which capitalism does actually work is very different from the picture presented by capitalist realism. — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism, 43

Categorization

• QUESTION: Fisher asserts decentralized bureaucracy proliferated but doesn’t yet specify mechanisms — worth chasing how audit/accountability regimes produce new bureaucratic layers.
• XREF: connects to: Neoliberalism expanded bureaucracy rather than eliminating it — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 1581; Neoliberalism decentralized bureaucracy instead of abolishing it — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism: Is There No…, 43; Neoliberal marketisation imposed its own new bureaucracy — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 1724 (+2 more)

Related

• Neoliberalism decentralized bureaucracy instead of abolishing it (similarity 0.94)
• Neoliberalism increased bureaucratic tasks despite promising to cut red tape. (similarity 0.91)
• Neoliberalism expanded bureaucracy rather than eliminating it (similarity 0.88)
• Neoliberal marketisation imposed its own new bureaucracy (similarity 0.86)
• Market bureaucracy is more Kafkaesque than centralized totalitarian rule (similarity 0.79)
• Marketisation imposed on public services breeds bureaucracy geared to producing appearances (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Neoliberalism expanded bureaucracy rather than eliminating it #corroborates (1.00) — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1581
• Neoliberalism decentralized bureaucracy instead of abolishing it #corroborates (0.95) — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism, 43
• Neoliberal marketisation imposed its own new bureaucracy #expands (0.95) — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1724
• Neoliberalism increased bureaucratic tasks despite promising to cut red tape. #corroborates (0.95)
• Neoliberalism intensifies rather than breaks with capitalist state form #expands (0.75) — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 1748