Ludwig von Mises’s 1944 work, Bureaucracy, critically examines the fundamental conflict between individual liberty and the encroaching power of the socialist state, arguing that the rise of bureaucracy is intrinsically linked to the decline of free markets and private initiative. Mises contends that bureaucratic management, characterized by adherence to rigid rules and the absence of profit-based calculation, inherently differs from and is less efficient than profit-driven enterprise. He explores how the expansion of government intervention, even in democratic societies, leads to bureaucratization, stifles innovation, and ultimately threatens individual freedoms. The book contrasts the dynamism of capitalism, driven by consumer sovereignty and economic calculation, with the stagnation and potential for totalitarianism inherent in bureaucratic systems, emphasizing the irreconcilable nature of these two approaches to social organization.
