Parallel streams of literature in economics and management suggest that a centralized power structure tends to produce a top-heavy personnel structure in government bureaucracies. Supportive evidence is derived from a hand-collected dataset of ministry organization charts from 22 European countries. The structure of the bureaucratic pyramid is more top heavy in Eastern Europe than it is in Western Europe. Within Eastern Europe, countries that have preserved Soviet-style bureaucratic power structures have the most top-heavy ministries, whereas others that have reduced power centralization by separating political and administrative power have less top-heavy ministry pyramids that are more like those found in Western Europe.