The Long Council
Who was selected, and why
How can Western democracies reduce bureaucracy?
The central tension
Administrative efficiency versus democratic accountability — whether reducing bureaucracy requires sacrificing oversight mechanisms that protect against abuse of power and ensure public participation.
The two poles
Efficiency
Friedrich Hayek
Margaret ThatcherAccountability
Hannah Arendt
Confucius
Helmut SchmidtSelected members
Friedrich Hayek
Will argue: Bureaucracy should be reduced through market mechanisms and rule-based governance rather than discretionary administration
Documented the knowledge problem in central planning and argued that bureaucratic rule-making cannot effectively process dispersed local information · *The Road to Serfdom*, *The Constitution of Liberty* on bureaucracy as "rule by nobody" and the impossibility of rational bureaucratic calculation
Margaret Thatcher
Will argue: Bureaucracy reduction requires political will to confront entrenched interests and transfer functions from state to market
Implemented systematic reduction of British bureaucracy through privatisation, deregulation, and civil service reform during the 1980s · Cabinet papers, memoirs documenting privatisation programme and civil service reforms; documented results and resistance
Hannah Arendt
Will argue: Bureaucracy reduction must preserve spaces for genuine political action and cannot eliminate accountability mechanisms
Theorised bureaucracy as "rule by nobody" and analysed how administrative systems can undermine political accountability and democratic participation · *The Human Condition*, *On Violence* on bureaucracy as a form of domination that eliminates personal responsibility and political judgment
Confucius
Will argue: Reduce bureaucracy through better officials and clearer procedures, not by eliminating oversight of official conduct
Emphasised that governance quality depends on official competence and integrity, with systematic principles for administrative efficiency and moral accountability · *Analects* and administrative documents on meritocratic selection, performance standards, and the relationship between moral cultivation and administrative capacity
Helmut Schmidt
Will argue: Bureaucracy serves necessary coordination functions but must be streamlined through better procedures and clearer authority, not eliminated
Managed complex policy coordination across multiple institutions while maintaining efficiency during crises; experienced tension between democratic deliberation and decisive action · Federal Archive records of crisis management, documented frustration with slow institutional processes while defending institutional constraints on executive power
Considered but not selected
Lee Kuan Yew: Focused on small-state efficiency rather than democratic accountability trade-offs in large federal systems
Milton Friedman: Economic framework overlaps too much with Hayek without adding distinct administrative perspective
Franklin D. Roosevelt: His expansion of federal bureaucracy during the New Deal makes him the counter-example rather than the solution advocate