Bureaucracy is a political book written by Austrian School economist and libertarian thinker Ludwig von Mises.

The author's motivation in writing the book is his concern with the spread of socialist ideals and the increasing bureaucratization of economic life.

The author's purpose is to demonstrate that the negative aspects of bureaucracy are not a result of bad policies or corruption, as the public tends to think.

Headquarters gives the branch manager a free hand to operate his concern as he sees fit so long as he returns a profit.

But an even more important consequence of the absence of the profit criterion is the necessity of centralizing administration and restricting the freedom of the branch or department manager: since his performance cannot be easily assessed in monetary terms, the safest way to prevent excesses and the abuse of power is to ensure everyone adheres to the government's directives.

A deficit in this latter case does not spell the end of the enterprise or even the beginning of reforms, because it is generally assumed that the reason the enterprise exists is to 'render useful services to the public' (i.e. employ a large part of the local population as its workforce or charge an artificially low price for its products or services), not become a slave of the profit motive.

For this reason enterprises that are in the red are allowed to operate for years or decades, with the result being that its losses are eventually passed on to every citizen.

The proof of the usefulness of the services rendered is that a sufficient number of citizens is ready to pay the price asked for them.