Red Tape
Etymology
From the reddish-pink tape long used in England to bind together stacks of official and legal documents, a practice common by the seventeenth century. Untying and retying it came to stand for bureaucratic delay. The literal tape is gone; the phrase for its drag survives.
noun phrase · /red tayp/
Excessive formal procedures and paperwork that obstruct action without serving a real purpose.
What it names
The specific, maddening friction of rules for their own sake — the gap between following process and getting anything done.
Example
The grant existed to help small farmers, but the red tape scared most of them off before they applied.
Related idea
Red tape is the dysfunction; bureaucracy is the neutral structure it grows on. Not all procedure is red tape — the label belongs only to steps that add cost without adding value or protection.
See also