Max Weber’s Bureaucracy theory
Bureaucracy is not a new system. In fact, it was born at the same time when huge empires were established in ancient times. In order to maintain control over all areas of administration in the vast empire, an organized system of formal appointments of officials, their promotion, determination of their responsibilities and clear division of powers etc. developed, which was a form of bureaucracy. The expansion of capitalism and democracy has made modern bureaucracy an essential form of organization.
The word bureaucracy was invented by the French economist Vincent de Gournay in 1745. Bureaucracy is called ‘bureaucracy’ in English, which is made up of the Latin word ‘bureau’ which means ‘table’ and the Greek word ‘kresi’ which means ‘governance’. Thus ‘bureaucracy’ means ‘table rule’ or ‘table government’. Bureaucracy is also called “Redtapism”.
By definition, bureaucracy is a systematic organization of functions and individuals, which aspires to effectively achieve desired goals or objectives through collective effort.
Definitions :-
1) According to John Stuart Mill, “Bureaucracy means professionally efficient administrators of government in the society.”
2. Talcott Parsons: “The relatively large-scale organisations with specialised functions…… loosely send to be called bureaucracies.”
3. Wallace and Wallace: “Bureaucracies are large-scale formal organisations which are highly differentiated and organised through elaborate policies and procedures in a hierarchy of authority.”
4) Harold Joseph Lossky, “Bureaucracy is the rule of officials in a government system.”
5) According to Herman Finer, “bureaucracy is the rule carried out by administrators or officials.”
Max Weber’s Bureaucracy theory
Bureaucracy is also linked to the ideal type concept of Weber and Weber links it to the rising rationalization of society. It is an ideal type of organization in which structure is based on legal rational authority. According to Weber, bureaucracy is the type of organization which suits most the modern societies where work is done rationally. It is ‘a hierarchical organization designed rationally to coordinate the work o many individuals in the pursuit of large scale administrative tasks and organizational goals’. Capitalism which is the basis of economy in modern world also works on rational organization requires bureaucratic organizations for its working. According to him, “From a purely technical point of view, a bureaucracy is capable of attaining the highest degree of efficiency, and is in this sense formally the most rational known means of exercising authority over human beings. It is superior to any other form in precision, in stability, in the stringency of its discipline, and in its reliability. It, thus, makes possible a particularly high degree of calculability of results for the heads of the organization and for those acting in relation to it. It is finally superior both in intensive efficiency and in the scope of its operations and is formally capable of application to all kinds of administrative tasks.’
Weber distinguished the ideal-typical bureaucracy from the ideal-typical bureaucrat. He conceived of bureaucracies as structures and of bureaucrats as positions within those structures.
Characteristics Of Bureaucracy
Max Weber was the first to give a detailed sociological account of the development of bureaucracy. According to him, bureaucracy reveals the following characteristics.
1. Fixed Official Jurisdiction Area:
Bureaucracies normally have their own official fixed jurisdiction. Bureaucracy consists of various statuses each of which has its own fixed official duties. There are clear cut written rules governing each status.
2. Hierarchy of Authority:
Bureaucracy has its own hierarchy of statuses. Officials who occupy these statuses are governed by the principle of super-ordination and subordination. There is the supervision of the lower offices by the higher ones.
3. Clear-cut Division of Labour:
The entire task of the bureaucratic system is governed by a stipulated system of division of labour. Who should do what work and who should shoulder what responsibility is decided by this system.
4. Appointment Based on Eligibility:
Bureaucracy has its own system of selecting employees and giving them promotions on the basis of seniority, technical competence, specialised knowledge or skill.
5. Fixed Salary, Allowance and Pension:
The officials of the bureaucracy are paid monthly salary and other types of allowances and pensions as per the written rules.
6. Office and Maintenance of Files:
Bureaucracy as an organisation functions through an office wherein all the matters and transactions relating to its area of operation are maintained in the form of files. It has a system of written documents defining its procedures and manner of functioning.
7. Appointment of officials on full time and long term service basis:
Appointment of officials in a bureaucracy is normally made by the higher officials and not by election. Normally the position of the bureaucrat is held for life as specified by the contract or order.
8. Difference between private matter and official issues:
The officials of the bureaucracy are expected to make a clear distinction between the official issues and pure private or personal matters. They are not entitled to make use of official facilities for personal needs except as defined by written rules.
9. Supervision of work by higher officials:
Officials of the bureaucracy are expected to work according to the written rules. Still there is the system of supervision of the work of lower officials by the higher officials.
10. Systematisation of official relations with officials:
The officials of bureaucracy maintain contact and communication among themselves in a particular way. Orders and communications among them always proceed through “proper channels.”
11. Political Neutrality:
Officials of bureaucracy are expected to be very objective in the official discharge of business. They are expected to be politically neutral in their dealings.
12. Guidance by past procedures:
Bureaucrats are mostly guided by the past procedures. A good bureaucrat is one who always tries to be uptodate with the subject with which not only he is dealing at present but he may be required to deal at any subsequent stage.
The characteristics stated above, cannot be found in any existing bureaucracy in their true or complete form. Never before in history such bureaucracies existed. As Max Weber has said, the concept of bureaucracy associated with these rules represents the “Ideal types.” The existing bu reaucracies or any particular instance of a bureaucracy can only be compared with or evaluated in relation to this ideal type. Weber was quite aware of the increasing importance of the bureaucracies in the modern world.
This ideal type bureaucracy is only approximated in reality, but Weber argues that bureaucracies of modern societies are slowly moving towards this pure type as this type of technical superiority over other type of organizations. organization has
Weber also has certain skepticism about bureaucracy and despite it being most efficient type of organization, Weber foresee it as a source of alienation of human being. He refers it as ‘iron cage of rationality’ which makes human beings slave of rationality who cannot escape it as they get too addicted to it. His major fear was that the rationalization that dominates all aspects of bureaucratic life was a threat to individual liberty. He described bureaucracies as ‘escape proof’, ‘practically un-shatterable’ and among the hardest institutions to destroy once they are established. Unlike Marx, he didn’t see future in terms of dictatorship of proletariat, but in terms of dictatorship of official.
Criticism-
Weber’s concept of bureaucracy attracted wide criticism. Roberto Michels in his ‘Political Parties, 1911 said that bureaucracy becomes so dominating in democracy, that it reduces a democracy into an oligarchy.
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