Byzantine bureaucracy
- noun
- /bɪˈzæntiːn bjʊəˈrɒkrəsi/
:
burocracia bizantina
- Many small businesses struggle to survive in a Byzantine bureaucracy that complicates simple processes with excessive regulations.
Examples
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Navigating the city's Byzantine bureaucracy requires patience due to the numerous forms and procedures involved.
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The Byzantine bureaucracy in the government makes it difficult for citizens to access essential services without facing delays.
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In the great tradition of Byzantine bureaucracies, this is taking a very long time.
Academic text (2011)
Synonyms
187
6.3
A system run by officials who are not elected with many rules that makes things slow
1
8.9
A system where officials who are not elected follow many rules and make slow decisions
A system with complicated rules and many steps that make things hard to follow
Very complicated rules that are hard to follow or understand
How Complex
187
6.3
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase directly combines 'Byzantine' (connoting tangled, secretive, or convoluted) with 'bureaucracy' (a system of official procedures), so the sense of an extremely complex, convoluted administrative system is transparently derived from its parts. This compositional meaning is predictable and follows common metaphorical extension patterns, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would understand it.
Etymology
Byzantine bureaucracy comes from the old Byzantine Empire, which had many complicated rules and long steps in government. Byzantine came to mean 'very complex' and bureaucracy means government offices and rules, so the phrase describes a system with too many slow, confusing steps.