History Main / VastBureaucracy

* In ''Comicbook/{{Asterix}} the Legionary'', Asterix goes to the the Roman army headquarters to inquire about a soldier. He's shunted from department to department, until giving in and beating the crap out of the first employee he'd met for information.

* ''Literature/TheRedTapeWar'' attempts to [[UpToEleven surpass the Vogons]] by having not one, but '''[[RuleOfThree three]]''' galaxy-spanning bureaucracies filled with {{Obstructive Bureaucrat}}s.

* [[UsefulNotes/SovietRussiaUkraineAndSoOn The Soviet Union]] was as a whole mired in [[{{Main/Pun}} 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]].

* ''VideoGame/{{Stellaris}}'' has the "Byzantine Bureaucracy" civic: "This society is largely governed by a complex and, to the outsider, almost labyrinthine system of bureaucracy. An army of officials and functionaries work tirelessly to keep the government running smoothly and ensure no citizens are allocated resources they cannot demonstrate a properly filed and triple-stamped need for." However, in practice it's downplayed -- its primary effect is to increase the unity and stability output of bureaucrats individual bureaucrats; the bureaucracy only gets so big because its individual agents are good at what they do.

* ''VideoGame/{{Stellaris}}'' has the "Byzantine Bureaucracy" civic: "This society is largely governed by a complex and, to the outsider, almost labyrinthine system of bureaucracy. An army of officials and functionaries work tirelessly to keep the government running smoothly and ensure no citizens are allocated resources they cannot demonstrate a properly filed and triple-stamped need for." Game effect: Reduced housing and amenities usage and more administrator jobs.
** In gameplay, it is often a DefiedTrope: Several technologies are, according to their FlavorText, intended to streamline bureaucracy to reduce it's size.

May have {{obstructive bureaucrat}}s, but not necessary; there are just a large number of bureaucrats that are mostly just normal people doing their jobs. The BeleagueredBureaucrat often works here. Rarely, if you are lucky, you can find the BadassBureaucrat. May be a contributing factor to JurisdictionFriction. Compare ForInconveniencePressOne and PenPushingPresident.

* In the animated movie ''WesternAnimation/TheTwelveTasksOfAsterix'', Asterix and Obelix need to get the permit "A-38" from a bureaucratic agency know as "The Place That Sends You Mad", a Roman bureaucratic building 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: he turns the bureaucracy against itself. He asks for "Permit "A-'''39'''", which doesn't exist, but the employees try to find it anyway because they don't know that, exposing the weaknesses of a system where everyone has a task but doesn't know how the rest works. In the end, ''all'' of the employees themselves go mad, and the head of the department gives him the permit A-38 just to get rid of him. And after realizing what he'd done, the guy himself goes mad as well.

* The entire plot and setting of ''Film/{{Brazil}}'' revolves around a VastBureaucracy.

* In the animated movie ''WesternAnimation/TheTwelveTasksOfAsterix'', Asterix and Obelix need to get the permit "A-38" from a bureaucratic agency know as "The Place That Sends You Mad", a Roman bureaucratic building 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: he turns the bureaucracy against itself. He asks for "Permit "A-'''39'''", 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, ''all'' of the employees themselves go mad, and the head of the department gives him the permit A-38 just to get rid of him. And after realizing what he'd done, the guy himself goes mad as well.

[[folder: Audiobooks ]]

[[folder: Comic Books]]

[[folder: Fan Works ]]

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]

-->'''Jupiter''': I'll never complain about the DMV ever again.

* ''{{Film/Ikiru}}'' portrays the Japanese bureaucracy as this setup loaded with {{Obstructive Bureaucrat}}s. The plot is kicked off when a group of mothers, wanting to convert a nearby dump into a playground, are given the runaround from department to department all requesting forms from ''other'' departments until they come back to the first one again. It's best exemplified when one worker laments that - "The thing is, in order to clean up a garbage can somewhere, you need a garbage can full of paperwork!"

[[folder: Literature ]]

[[folder: Live-Action TV ]]

* In ''Series/YoungIndianaJones'', much of the "Prague, August 1917"/"Espionage Escapades, part 2" episode sees Indy encountering an insane [[Creator/FranzKafka Kafkaesque]] bureaucracy when all he wants is to get a phone installed. Kafka himself later shows up to help Indy out.

-->'''Jamie:''' He transferred me to his duty officer upstairs who apparently was not on duty right now, so they call us back.
-->'''Adam:''' You know it's that kind of thing where you can call until you are blue in the face, and no'one would know who you should talk to, and if something did happen and people where pissed off. It would still take them like three weeks to figure out; who should punish you?

[[folder: New Media]]
* Wikipedia's growth slowed at one point 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.

[[folder: Podcasts]]
* ''Podcast/{{Midst}}'': The Trust is somewhere between a government, a bank, and a cult. The Notaries are halfway between clerks and priests, and they have dozens of algorithms to figure out the exchange rate of good deeds and Valor.
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[[folder: Tabletop Games ]]
* 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.

* In ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'', the Administratum of the Imperium of Man takes this trope to an extreme, to the point that ''TabletopGame/DarkHeresy'' mentions that one of the planets has a civil war is brewing over where to store all the paperwork. Legions of scribes and bureaucrats across the galaxy spend their lives processing data thousands of years out of date, to be stored in archives that will never be read. Reinforcements are sent to wars that ended generations ago, and entire sectors of space are lost due to filing errors. Tithes are demanded of planets that no longer exist, or worse, a world can face punishment for failing to meet a conscription quota because a mass-mobilization order was issued twice by accident. That said, the Imperium is so incomprehensibly vast such errors matter little in the big picture, not to mention the Imperial government (rather than the planetary governments) considers this state of affairs better than the alternative as was shown in the ''Literature/HorusHeresy''.

[[folder: Video Games ]]

[[folder: Webcomic ]]

[[folder: Web Original]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]
* Parodied by the Central Bureaucracy in ''{{WesternAnimation/Futurama}}''. The lines to get a birth certificate are so long that babies are born in line, and it has committees just to determine the color of the book of regulations. (They kept it gray). The bureaucrats are not only aware of how anal and rigid they are, they're pretty damn proud of it.

[[folder: Real Life ]]

* In ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'', the Administratum of the Imperium of Man takes this trope to an extreme, to the point that ''TabletopGame/DarkHeresy'' mentions that a civil war is brewing over where to store all the paperwork. Legions of scribes and bureaucrats across the galaxy spend their lives processing data thousands of years out of date, to be stored in archives that will never be read. Reinforcements are sent to wars that ended generations ago, and entire sectors of space are lost due to filing errors. Tithes are demanded of planets that no longer exist, or worse, a world can face punishment for failing to meet a conscription quota because a mass-mobilization order was issued twice by accident.

* In ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'' Luna's government has a massive bureaucracy. When Tagon's Toughs is hired they're required to fill out [[https://www.schlockmercenary.com/2000-12-07 300 pages]] (and that's the "short" form) of redundant paperwork because the use of computers for such work was banned by the "Bureaucrat Preservation Act", and it turns out the job was to clear out a long-standing (years, apparently) "protest" outside one of their offices that was actually just the line.

* In ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'' Luna's government has a massive bureaucracy. When Tagon's Toughs is hired they're required to fill out a tall stack of redundant paperwork because the use of computers for such work was banned by the "Bureaucrat Preservation Act" and it turns out the job was to clear out a long-standing (years, apparently) "protest" outside one of their offices that was actually the line.

* ''Podcast/{{Midst}}: The Trust is somewhere between a government, a bank, and a cult. The Notaries are halfway between clerks and priests, and they have dozens of algorithms to figure out the exchange rate of good deeds and Valor.

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* UsefulNotes/NaziGermany was built in such a way that various services were at each others throats all the time, so that no one of them would try to [[TheStarscream stage a coup]] against [[UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler Hitler]], and having them struggling for dominance suited his SocialDarwinist philosophy. [[[[UsefulNotes/WorldWarTwo Obviously]], [[FascistButInefficient it didn't work out well]].

* A recurring issue for many of the star-spanning nations of ''TabletopGame/BattleTech'', though arguably the most heavily affected was [[NGOSuperpower ComStar]], whose strange mix of MachineWorship and ImpartialPurposeDrivenFaction made them into a bizarre religious Space AT&T meant that it was not only possible but ''common'' for [[RightHandVsLeftHand the right hand to not be fully aware of what the left hand was doing at any given time]]. This would lead to results like civilians trying to warn people about an invasion force being prevented from sending out word by [=ComStar=] members [[SkewedPriorities because they didn't have an account]], or occasionally taking so long to arbitrate mercenary review cases that some of the disputing parties ''died'' before a decision was reached.

* A recurring issue for many of the star-spanning nations of ''TabletopGame/BattleTech'', though arguably the most heavily affected was [[NGOSuperpower ComStar]], whose strange mix of MachineWorship and ImpartialPurposeDrivenFaction made them into a bizarre religious Space AT&T meant that it was not only possible but ''common'' for [[RightHandVsLeftHand the right hand to not be fully aware of what the left hand was doing at any given time]]. This would lead to results like civilians trying to warn people about an invasion force being prevented from sending out word by [=ComStar=] members [[SkewedPriorities because they didn't have an account]], or occasionally taking so long to arbitrate mercenary review cases that some of the claimants occasionally ''died'' before a decision was reached.

* A recurring issue for many of the star-spanning nations of ''TabletopGame/BattleTech'', though arguably the most heavily affected was [[NGOSuperpower ComStar]], whose strange mix of MachineWorship and ImpartialPurposeDrivenFaction made them into a bizarre religious Space AT&T meant that it was not only possible but ''common'' for [[RightHandVsLeftHand the right hand to not be fully aware of what the left hand was doing at any given time]]. This would lead to results like civilians trying to warn people about an invasion force being prevented from sending out word by ComStar members because they didn't have a ComStar account, or occasionally taking so long to arbitrate mercenary review cases that some of the claimants occasionally ''died'' before a decision was reached.

* UsefulNotes/NaziGermany was built in such a way that various services were at each others throats all the time, so that no one of them would try to [[TheStarscream stage a coup]] against [[UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler Hitler]]. Obviously, it didn't work out well.

This trope can be considered as parent trope to FascistButInefficient. Totalitarian forms of statehood and economy ''always'' require and form a vast bureaucracy, which contributes the horrid inefficiency of such societies.

* {{Film/Ikiru}} portrays the Japanese bureaucracy as this setup loaded with {{Obstructive Bureaucrat}}s, exemplified best when one laments that - "The thing is, in order to clean up a garbage can somewhere, you need a garbage can full of paperwork!"

* 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; the process is so laborious that it ends up frustrating even the ''robotic lawyer'' assigned to Jupiter.