This year and next are likely to see significant reform to two public bureaucracies in the United Kingdom and the Holy See. The first is driven more by the need to find financial savings to help reduce the country’s deficit; the latter to create a more efficient and relevant administrative culture capable of serving the needs of a global organisation. Both sets of reforms are likely to be significant and far-reaching, but will they work?Bureaucracies have few fans in the modern world – Whitehall and the Curia are no exception – regardless of how good they might be. In the modern world, bureaucracies are often seen as something which needs to be overcome or bypassed. Slogans abound in the media and politics about freeing cities, non-governmental organisations, businesses,