Hartz IV recipients must go through a complicated bureaucratic procedure to replace essential household items such as a refrigerator or television set.

FORBES: Why Obama Cannot Match Germany's Jobs Miracle

In a country that loves bureaucratic procedure, the constitution requires the tireless president to chair ceremonies, sign off documents and swear in officials, if anything is to progress.

ECONOMIST: Nigeria's ailing president

Or he could keep his pledge, and brand it a manipulator, while making sure that the bureaucratic procedure that would then follow did not lead to any actual retribution.

ECONOMIST: Lexington

It was a purely bureaucratic procedure, empty of any larger moral or political meaning as it must have been for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and Faisal Shahzad and as it would have been for Tamerlan Tsarnaev, too.

WSJ: Why the U.S. Needs a New Loyalty Oath

Sunder Katwala's proposal is even worse than the current inheritance tax as it introduces a highly bureaucratic administrative procedure to monitor and control what we do with our wealth while we are alive.

BBC: Have Your Say: Inheritance tax