1. An administrative system, especially in a government, that divides work into specific categories carried out by special departments of non-elected officials.
2. An organizational model that vests (bestows a power on) individuals with authority and spheres of competence in a predetermined hierarchy with abstract rules and selection by test.

A system of government or business which has many complicated rules and ways of doing things all of which slow any effective actions or results; also known as, red tape. (1)