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I'm looking for a word but I'm not sure it exists. Is there any word that resembles something like obstructive bureaucracy?

What I actually mean with this: Someone who blocks an extremely urgent request on the basis of bureaucracy.

An example:

  • Harry, Chief of the Fire Department, didn't send out the fire trucks to the fire because the caller didn't fill in form A34.

What is this type of behaviour called?

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    Are you asking about a term to refer to the person who does this, or the act of doing this?
    – Andrew Leach
    Commented Jan 18, 2022 at 9:10
  • @AndrewLeach I sharpened the question, thanks for your feedback.
    – S B
    Commented Jan 18, 2022 at 9:12
  • This isn't exactly the same but may help: Idiom for someone who got a tiny fraction of power and abuses it?. There are a couple of other questions that aren't quite the same, although it's not clear exactly what is being asked.
    – Stuart F
    Commented Jan 18, 2022 at 9:12
  • @SB Great: thanks. The person who does this is a jobsworth. Perhaps the "act" is "being a jobsworth", although a single word would be nice.
    – Andrew Leach
    Commented Jan 18, 2022 at 9:14
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    See also Where did the word red-tapism come from?
    – DjinTonic
    Commented Jan 18, 2022 at 10:58

1 Answer 1

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The only word I think of that fits your specification is beadledom:

Collins

beadledom:
Noun
fussiness and stupidity of minor officials; petty bureaucracy

YourDictionary

fussiness and stupidity of minor officials
petty bureaucracy
beadles collectively, and their characteristics as a class
stupid or senseless officiousness

Merriam Webster

the characteristics felt to mark beadles as a class
usually stupid officialism

The beadle is typically a low level bureaucrat:

Cambridge

beadle:

an official who takes part in some church or university ceremonies
in the past, an officer of the law who dealt with small offences in a local area

Such officials, lacking the reflective capacity of high lever officials, tend towards over-enthusiastic, pompous, self-important and unthinking application of rules and regulations.

Hence, one of the strongest associations of the beadle with this sort of behaviour was in Charles Dickens's OliverTwist. The refusal of food to a hungry child seems to qualify as denial of an urgent request rather well.

Fandom

Mr. Bumble, fictional character in the novel Oliver Twist (1837–39) by Charles Dickens. Mr. Bumble is the cruel, pompous and ignorant beadle of the workhouse where the orphaned Oliver is raised. Bumbledom, named after him, also characterizes the meddlesome self-importance of the petty bureaucrat.

Consequently, google's ngram shows the word to have been at its most popular in the latter half of the nineteenth century.

Anyone familiar with the adventures of Michael Bond's Paddington Bear (https://www.paddington.com/us/heritage/michael-bond/) will also find beadledom in the behaviour of the officious self-appointed custodian of street affairs Mr Curry:

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    The only problem with beadledom is that no one who has not read your erudite answer will understand what it means! Commented Jan 18, 2022 at 11:25
  • @HighPerformanceMark Thanks for the compliment. Isn't this the case with a number of answers on this site? We have to assume an educated, tolerant and reflective readership or we risk failing our questioners. Not easy.
    – Anton
    Commented Jan 18, 2022 at 11:54
  • Worth an upvote as it's absent from the duplicates. Commented Jan 18, 2022 at 12:55
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    @EdwinAshworth I am not persuaded that the answers in the original "duplicate", although many and well voted, are quite right for this question. However, it is nice to feel praised with faint damns.
    – Anton
    Commented Jan 18, 2022 at 13:18
  • @Anton While this is a good find, HP Hark's comment is a necessary comment, pointing out that an SWR answer here should not only provide the word but explain the conditions of its use, like how common it is, if it is local (AmE or BrE or nautical or medical or etc etc), register (formal informal), taboo, etc etc etc. Basically the things that a dictionary rarely supplies.
    – Mitch
    Commented Jan 18, 2022 at 13:43

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