She hadn't realized that trying to get an incompetent bureaucrat ousted came under the head- ing of "personal interests."

Nor of course can any law, in a society where there are adults who torture children, overworked caseworkers, budget cuts and incompetent bureaucrats.

The collapse of the national airline and the court jester fiasco were the fault of incompetent bureaucrats, he said.

In many cases, Phung Hoang chiefs were incompetent bureaucrats who used their positions to enrich themselves.

It turned the central bank over to an incompetent bureaucrat who let go of the money supply and brought the economy to the verge of hyperinflation, with prices rising more than 2,000 percent in 1992.

Call him a passionate and dedicated children's advocate, who arrives at his office every morning by 5:30 A.M. to call, write, yell, swear and sue anyone from incompetent bureaucrats to abusive parents.

According to Bok, the genuine problems facing the United States cannot be attributed to the familiar scapegoats: "If there is any persistent theme that emerges from this book, it is that many of the government's failings are not primarily the result of scheming politicians, incompetent bureaucrats or selfish interest groups."