Rather, it will seek to defend and perpetuate the status quo, while expanding bureaucratic power and prerogatives at the margin.

FORBES: Why the Bureaucracy Won't Reform Old Age Welfare

The power of the state was built up on new foundations to something like the status which it had enjoyed in Roman times, and endowed with a bureaucratic apparatus such as Rome had never had.

ECONOMIST: Medieval history

But a shrunken, bureaucratic guest-worker program that lets unions define job openings and determine wages is worse than the status quo.

WSJ: Review & Outlook: Immigration Reform Roadblock