bureaucracy

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun Administration of a government chiefly through bureaus or departments staffed with nonelected officials.
• noun The departments and their officials as a group.
• noun Management or administration marked by hierarchical authority among numerous offices and by fixed procedures.
• noun The administrative structure of a large or complex organization.
• noun An administrative system in which the need or inclination to follow rigid or complex procedures impedes effective action.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun Government by bureaus; specifically, excessive multiplication of, and concentration of power in, administrative bureaus.
• noun The body of officials administering such bureaus, considered collectively.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun A system of carrying on the business of government by means of departments or bureaus, each under the control of a chief, in contradiction to a system in which the officers of government have an associated authority and responsibility; also, government conducted on this system.
• noun Government officials, collectively; -- used especially of nonelected government officials.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun Structure and regulations in place to control activity. Usually in large organizations and government operations.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun nonelective government officials
• noun a government that is administered primarily by bureaus that are staffed with nonelective officials
• noun any organization in which action is obstructed by insistence on unnecessary procedures and red tape