How to Spot a Bureaucrat

Dictionary Definition - Bureaucracy n, pl 1 a system of administration based upon organisation into bureaus, division of labour, a hierarchy of authority etc. 2 government by such a system.

And you get the picture there...However, as much of Western society has experienced, this practise of administration is inescapable. The title itself is also a little misleading, because even with the lightest of paperwork, its another sign that the most efficient system is at work here. The figure discussed here is perhaps largely overlooked compared to his three other contemporaries (together named the 'Suspicous Four' or the 'Big Sceptics'), and does not merit as large amount of explanation of his philosophy as other philosophers. But, a change is as good as the rest.

Max Weber

(1864-1920)

 'When those subject to bureaucratic control seek to escape the influence of the existing bureaucratic apparatus, this is normally possible only by creating an organisation of their own which is equally subject to the process of bureaucratisation.'

Biography

Born from a liberal background in a family of deep political and sociological beliefs, Weber's spent much of his young life in Berlin and was found as he was growing up, he was to develop a strong understanding of sociology and political parties. It was during one of his addresses, the Freiburg Address, of 1905 that Weber saw only a form of 'liberal imperilaism' and Germany uniting as a whole state to solve their own domestic problems. His published works on politics ensured that either a person could either live for or live off politics, as which the individuals with the most wealth can live and work in politics. It was this question that if the worker was unwilling to rise up against their leaders, Weber suggested that with a "velvet glove hidden over an iron fist" (think Machiavelli - 'the voice of people is the voice of God') or an 'Ideal', charismatic leader, we are bound to obey by force or the peoples loyalty. And it was this that the very first and efficient system of state unity under the national state of Germany was formed, 'bureaucracy', and the signs which people work and live under:

1. Power of Politics: Generally born out of government institutions only, Weber sought to disprove this and suggested that many systems of education, church and private industry all have their own individual bureaucracy. Bureau, translated from the French origin of 'office' suggests any matter of work that is produced at the desk and written (or typed, as is now the case) into paperwork. Indeed, with work now able to follow us home as well when it can simply be translated from one computer to another, this has expanded to our private properties as well. Thinking back to Hegel, it was he who said that more than anything else, it was important for people to uphold the Independence and function of their states to meet their teleological destiny ('Kingdom of Ends'), and this from a strong Prussian propagandist. Weber can be seen to support this idea with the 'Goal' or 'Value' rational behaviour in which the former is an end in which one works, for example, in a trade union or university and they would achieve whatever goals they set out to do because their superiors tell them too. Much like Kant's Hypothetical Imperative. The latter is a system in which they favour figures who seem to have a hypnotic appeal to them and have a desire to impress, which could include for German Nationalism during Weber's time, their faith and development of the German state. Weber saw this as the 'inescapable' means which society functions.
2. Types of Authority:

1. Charismatic authority is regarded as legitimate, and works, because followers are personally devoted to the 'gifted' leader. 

2. Traditional authority is regarded as legitimate because everyone has always obeyed whoever was in the leader's position, and no one thinks of disputing his authority.
3. Rational authority is the 'rule of law': it exists in a community in which there is a moral attitude of respect for the law as such, or because the law has been arrived at in a way that is regarded as legitimate.

 

     3. Consequences: As with the certain roles and statuses that modern capitalism provides for people in society, Weber identified that bureaucracy is necessary for the survival of maintaining the administration within a company. As is generally the case, owners themselves do not follow the day-to-day running of a business, but instead a manager who works as a means to run the occupation, but not have any control of it and they themselves a 'means of production' which become dispensable. Everything is rational and everyone has their place in society. Weber regarded this with great distaste, despite recognising there was no alternative and the system itself must evolve if the social function is to remain stable. Hobbes would have said a similar thing about the need of a Hobbesian monarch who rules out of fear that anarchy of the 'state of nature' would return and we all therefore implicitly agree to a Social Contract. Cultural Exhaustion results and which although the state is perfectly stable in its foundations, dust begins to form on matters of culture such as art, literature and architecture and the whole need for this becomes more tired as decades go by. It is unlikely we are therefore to see Shakespeare or Da Vinci in a world such as this again, as the state of flux and conflict they live in no longer exists. And it is despite this, countries arm themselves with large armies, weapon manufacturing and a constant fear of invasion affects most civilised nations still. Perhaps Rousseau is right to this day that "Man is born free and everywhere he is in chains."