bureaucracy vs red tape

bureaucracy

noun
  • Government by bureaus or their administrators or officers. 

  • The body of officers and administrators, especially of a government. 

  • Excessive red tape and routine in any administration, body or behaviour. 

  • A system of administration based upon organisation into bureaus, division of labour, a hierarchy of authority, etc., designed to dispose of a large body of work in a routine manner. 

red tape

noun
  • Time-consuming regulations or bureaucratic procedures. 

  • The binding tape once used for holding important documents together. 

How often have the words bureaucracy and red tape occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )