The Bureaucrat as a Voter

His pecuniary interest as employee towers above his interest as employer, as he gets much more from the public funds than he contributes to them.

The bureaucrat as voter is more eager to get a raise than to keep the budget balanced.

There were not only the hosts of public employees, and those employed in the nationalized branches of business, there were the receivers of the unemployment dole and of social-security benefits, as well as the farmers and some other groups which the government directly or indirectly subsidized.

Their main concern was to get more out of the public funds.

No candidate for parliament, provincial diets, or town councils could risk opposing the appetite of the public employees for a raise.

To create new offices with new employees was called a "Positive" policy, and every attempt to prevent squandering public funds was disparaged as "Negativism."

As they became convinced that the trend toward more government interference with business, toward more offices with more employees, toward more doles and subsidies is inevitable, they could not help losing confidence in government by the people.

https://mises.org/library/bureaucrat-voter