只要有官僚機構的地方，肯定就有走不完的辦事程序。先提交申請表，然后準備各類材料，到不同的機構蓋章，最后才有可能辦成你想辦的事。這樣的官僚行政程序在英語里叫red tape。

Red tape is excessive regulation or rigid conformity to formal rules that is considered redundant or bureaucratic and hinders or prevents action or decision-making. It is usually applied to governments, corporations and other large organizations.

Red tape指大量多余又官僚的規定和死板章程，這些章程會阻礙行動或決策，中文譯作“繁文縟節”或“官僚程序”，多見于政府、公司集團以及其他大型組織機構。

Red tape generally includes filling out paperwork, obtaining licenses, having multiple people or committees approve a decision and various low-level rules that make conducting one's affairs slower, more difficult, or both.

這些官僚程序通常包括填表格、獲取許可證、由多人或某個委員會商議批準某個決定，以及各種各樣讓辦事程序漫長又困難的低級別規定。

It appears likely that it was the Spanish administration of Charles V in the early 16th century, who started to use the red tape in an effort to modernize the administration that was running his vast empire. The red tape was used to bind the important administrative dossiers that had to be discussed by the Council of State, and separate them from the issues that were treated in an ordinary administrative way, which were bound by an ordinary rope.

率先使用紅帶子（代表官方文件）的可能是16世紀初期的西班牙國王查理五世，他在國家管理現代化的過程中用紅帶子裝訂那些需要拿到國家議會討論的重要文檔，并以此來與其他通過普通行政程序處理的文檔進行區分，普通文檔都是用普通的繩子裝訂的。

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（中國日報網英語點津 Helen）

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