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Bureaucracy is an administrative/decision-making process that is characterized by strict rules and protocols.
Suppose your city requires a permit to start a new business. A non-bureaucratic way of handing out that permit is to have people come to city hall and explain their proposed business to an official there. If the official thinks the business is good, they issue the permit. A bureaucratic way of handing out that permit would be to have people fill out a form describing the business and showing that it meets certain requirements. An official at city hall then reviews the form to ensure it has been filled out correctly and truthfully, and if it has, they issue the permit.
The non-bureaucratic system relies a lot on the opinion of the official. This makes it faster and more flexible, but it’s also harder to set standards for businesses and more susceptible to corruption or charisma. Someone might get better treatment just because they are friends with the official or particularly charming. Meanwhile, the bureaucratic system relies on filling out a lot of annoying (and sometimes unnecessary) forms, but those forms also provide a paper trail that makes the decision easy to review. Everyone, in principle, gets the same treatment.
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