History Main / VastBureaucracy

* The Ministry of Magic in ''Literature/HarryPotter'', with fully staffed departments for justice, research, non-human relations, maintaining the masquerade, transport, sports, international relations, totaling at least 600 employees (the number of ministry people that built the Qudditch Stadium in ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire Goblet of Fire]]'', and that is a ''very'' small fraction of the ministry workforce) ruling over a nation of at most (according to the best fandom estimation) 10,000 people, or 1 bureaucrat per 17 civilians, at minimum.

* In ''Beholder 2'' you work in the Ministry Carl reported to in the first game, it's located inside a colossal, grey monstrosity of a building that seems to go on forever.

* In the Sci-fi FPS/Roguelike ''Void Bastards'' the dangers of having to raid a DerelictGraveyard of spaceships with all the aliens, space pirates and other such problems are nothing compared to the horrors of the bureaucratic corporate dystopia that is this setting, you can get sent to prison for minorly inconveniencing a Corporate official, all electronics are designed to be overridden either by buying it out like in Bioshock or with the proper authorisations meaning screwing people over by having [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney money]] or [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections connections]] are literally built into the system and you can't get anything done without the proper paperwork. Your first task is to salvage a document printer and a blank ID card to restore your status as a citizen because you were a prisoner and they destroyed your old one, and it gets more convoluted from there.

* In the Sci-fi FPS/Roguelike ''Void Bastards'' the dangers of having to raid a DerelictGraveyard of spaceships with all the aliens, space pirates and other such problems are nothing compared to the horrors of the bureaucracy in this setting, you can get sent to prison for minorly inconveniencing a Corporate official, all electronics can be overridden either by buying it out like in Bioshock or with the proper authorisations meaning ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney or [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections Connections]] are built into the system and you can't get anything done without the proper paperwork.

* In ''VideoGame/SunlessSkies'', the New British Empire's civil service is... quite ''complicated''. Branches include the Ministry of Public Decency, which serve as MoralGuardians and censors, the Horological Office, which tries to make sure that time is consistent throughout the Empire, the Home Office, which originally processed immigration through the [[CoolGate Avid Horizon]] but now merely keeps an eye on the detainees stuck there, the Bureau of Entertainments, which runs Worlebury-Juxta-Mare, and the [[GenericName Office of Works]], whose primary purpose appears to be purchasing NoodleImplements.

* Shows up in the animated movie ''WesternAnimation/TheTwelveTasksOfAsterix'': Asterix and Obelix need to get "Permit A-38" from a bureaucratic agency, know as "The House That Drives You Mad", a Roman bureaucratic office so convoluted it does ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin. And our heroes comes close to it too, after fruitlessly going up and down stairs, being informed that the form you need doesn't exist/is the wrong color, the person you need to consult with is out to lunch, and so forth for hours. The method Asterix uses to win is brilliant in its simplicity. [[spoiler:He turns the bureaucracy against itself: he asks for "Permit A-3''9''", which doesn't exist, but the employees try to find it anyway, exposing the weaknesses of a system where everyone has a task but doesn't know how the rest works. In the end, the employees themselves go mad, and the head of the department gives him Permit A-38 just to get rid of him. And after realizing what he'd done, the guy himself goes mad as well.]]

* The Administratum in TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}} is described in this manner, to the point that in the TabletopGame/DarkHeresy RPG there is a civil war brewing within it over how to ''store'' all the paperwork. It's actually so bad that the Imperium can lose an ''entire sector of territory'' without anyone in the Administratum noticing.
** Indeed, with the Ecclesiarchy (Imperial Church) no better, the Guard an ill-run farce and the Navigators more or less running their own affairs, it could be said that the sole organization run properly in the Imperium is the autonomous[[note]]as in "every individual Inquisitor is a power unto themselves"[[/note]] Imperial Inquisition - and as its purpose is to purge the Administratum and Ecclesiarchy (all the demon-killing is done by one department) it all devolves into a bloody vicious circle.
* Reality itself runs on this in ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'', where the natural order of things is maintained by the gods of the sprawling, increasingly run-down Celestial Bureaucracy.
** Not to mention the one in Creation. The Scarlet Empress deliberately made sure that nothing noteworthy was easy to accomplish. Rival families and organizations within the Scarlet Empire were pitted against one another in order to keep them from organizing against the Empress and she made sure the Empress herself (not just the office) was utterly indispensable. So when she disappeared, the entire Empire almost immediately began falling apart.
* The Azorius Guild in the Ravnica setting of ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' is this. Just take a look at their [[http://wiki.mtgsalvation.com/article/File:RTR_Prerelease_Azorius.jpg acceptance letter]].

* In ''VideoGame/SunlessSkies'', the New British Empire's civil service are... quite ''complicated''. Branches include the Ministry of Public Decency, which serve as MoralGuardians and censors, the Horological Office, which tries to make sure that time is consistent throughout the Empire, the Home Office, which originally processed immigration through the [[CoolGate Avid Horizon]] but now merely keeps an eye on the detainees stuck there, the Bureau of Entertainments, which runs Worlebury-Juxta-Mare, and the [[GenericName Office of Works]], whose primary purpose appears to be purchasing NoodleImplements.

* ''We keep inventing jobs because of this false idea that everybody has to be employed at some kind of drudgery because, according to Malthusian-Darwinian theory, he must justify his right to exist. So we have inspectors of inspectors and people making instruments for inspectors to inspect inspectors.'' -- Buckminster Fuller

* Wikipedia's growth has slowed as of late for multiple reasons, but the related one is an immense behind the scenes bureaucracy with reams of Wikispeak that few new members can penetrate and casual editors can get driven off by, since they may spend half an hour writing an entry only to have it deleted by someone spouting legalese they don't know the terms to counter.

* [[UsefulNotes/SovietRussiaUkraineAndSoOn The Soviet Union]] was as a whole mired in red tape, as the government was in charge of everything, including science, commerce, and industry, making the bureaucracy [[UpToEleven more vast and impenetrable than anything that's come before or since]].

* In ''Film/JupiterAscending'', the captain of the Aegis cruiser would much rather go into battle than dealing with the bureaucracy that [[spoiler:claiming Jupiter's title to Earth]] involves. She's ''not'' exaggerating.

* In ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive'' the country of Azir is famous for its obsession with paperwork. When a thief breaks into the palace and pretends to be someone's servant sent to get cake, she's treated to a rant about how dietary requests are supposed to be submitted in advance with the appropriate forms. When a man intends to execute a 13-year old for trespass and theft, they stand aside, unable to argue because he did, after all, fill out the correct paperwork to do it. On the other hand, while an assassin murders rulers across the world and much of it descends into chaos and civil war as factions vie for the throne, the most powerful people in Azir are sitting peacefully around a table, worriedly and earnestly discussing the best options for the country. The idea of rioting in Azir is dismissed as "too much paperwork."

** Indeed, with the Ecclesiarchy (Imperial Church) no better, the Guard an ill-run farce and the Navigators more or less running their own affairs, it could be said that the sole organization run properly in the Imperium is the autonomous Imperial Inquisition - and as its purpose is to purge the Administratum and Ecclesiarchy (all the demon-killing is done by one department) it all devolves into a bloody vicious circle.

* In ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive'' the country of Azir is famous for its obsession with paperwork. When a thief breaks into the palace and pretends to be someone's servant sent to get cake, she's treated to a rant about how dietary requests are supposed to be submitted in advance with the appropriate forms. When a man intends to execute a 13-year old for trespass and theft, they stand aside, unable to argue because he did, after all, fill out the correct paperwork to do it. On the other hand, while an assassin murders rulers across the world and much of it descends into chaos and civil war as factions vie for the throne, the most powerful people in Azir are sitting peacefully around a table, worriedly and earnestly discussing the best options for the country. The idea of rioting is Azir is dismissed as "too much paperwork."

* The {{Infocom}} text adventure Bureaucracy, designed by Creator/DouglasAdams. Your 'health' is measured by your blood pressure, and if it gets too high you [[NonStandardGameOver die from an aneurysm]].

* In the {{Infocom}} games Planetfall and Stationfall, your character joins the Stellar Patrol for a life of adventure and exploring new worlds, only to find that its real job is to administer the galaxy's vast bureaucracy. At the start of Stationfall, your mission is to collect a consignment of Request for Stellar Patrol Issue Regulation Black Form Binders Request Form Forms.

* ''[[AmericanNewspapers The New York Times]]'' did a special report on the U.S. intelligence community and reported that it is a huge vast bureaucracy in which literally ''no one'' knows about everything that is going on, which means that agencies or even different sections of the same entity periodically bumble into each other as they attempt to serve the national interest in their own way.

* [[SovietRussiaUkraineAndSoOn The Soviet Union]] was as a whole mired in red tape, as the government was in charge of everything, including science, commerce, and industry, making the bureaucracy [[UpToEleven more vast and impenetrable than anything that's come before or since]].

* [[SovietRussiaUkraineAndSoOn Soviet Union]] was as a whole mired in red tape, as the government was in charge of everything, including science, commerce, and industry, making the bureaucracy [[UpToEleven more vast and impenetrable than anything that's come before or since]].