Editing Red tape (section)

== Red tape definition ==
The term "red tape" is sometimes employed as "an umbrella term covering almost all imagined ills of bureaucracy," both public and private.<ref name=Bozeman/>{{rp|275}}
However, red tape is usually defined more narrowly as government policies, guidelines, and forms that are excessive, duplicative or unnecessary, and that generate a financial or time-based compliance cost.<ref name=Cruz/><ref name=Bozeman/>{{rp|276}}
This definition is consistent with popular usage, which generally views red tape as negative.<ref name=Bozeman/>{{rp|278-279}}

Whereas red tape refers to unnecessary rules, ''administrative burden'' (sometimes called "white tape") recognizes that regulations that are intended for useful purposes may nonetheless entail a compliance cost.<ref name=":0"/><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Herd |first1=Pamela |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HER0DwAAQBAJ |title=Administrative Burden: Policymaking by Other Means |last2=Moynihan |first2=Donald P. |date=2019 |publisher=Russell Sage Foundation |isbn=978-1-61044-878-9 |pages=22 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Nisar |first1=Muhammad Azfar |last2=Masood |first2=Ayesha |date=2022-06-28 |title=Are all Burdens Bad? Disentangling Illegitimate Administrative Burdens through Public Value Accounting |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/23276665.2022.2088581 |journal=Asia Pacific Journal of Public Administration |volume=45 |issue=4 |pages=385–403 |doi=10.1080/23276665.2022.2088581 |s2cid=250127477 |issn=2327-6665|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref name=Bozeman/>{{rp|276}}<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Peeters |first=Rik |date=2019-06-06 |title=The Political Economy of Administrative Burdens: A Theoretical Framework for Analyzing the Organizational Origins of Administrative Burdens |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0095399719854367 |journal=Administration & Society |volume=52 |issue=4 |pages=566–592 |doi=10.1177/0095399719854367 |s2cid=195561302 |issn=0095-3997|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Burden |first1=Barry C. |last2=Canon |first2=David T. |last3=Mayer |first3=Kenneth R. |last4=Moynihan |first4=Donald P. |date=2012 |title=The Effect of Administrative Burden on Bureaucratic Perception of Policies: Evidence from Election Administration |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41687989 |journal=Public Administration Review |volume=72 |issue=5 |pages=741–751 |doi=10.1111/j.1540-6210.2012.02600.x |jstor=41687989 |issn=0033-3352|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Heinrich |first=Carolyn J. |date=2015-12-08 |title=The Bite of Administrative Burden: A Theoretical and Empirical Investigation |url=https://doi.org/10.1093/jopart/muv034 |journal=Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory |volume=26 |issue=3 |pages=403–420 |doi=10.1093/jopart/muv034 |issn=1053-1858|url-access=subscription }}</ref> 
Determining whether a regulation is justified rather than red tape can be difficult.  Nevertheless, making the proper distinction is relevant when implementing reforms, and cutting red tape differs from [[deregulation]].<ref name=Jones/>