TAKE HOME EXAM 2

Weber (IV) Power, Rationalization, Bureaucr. Administered Formal Organization and the State© Meyer Kestnbaum, University of Maryland -- Sociology 203

Overview

I. From last time: How does Weber move from power to inequality? II. How does Weber understand politics and the state?

III. How does Weber make sense of the operation and formation of the state? IV. What is so peculiar and important about bureaucracy? V. How does bureaucracy deepen our understanding of rationalization and

the iron cage?

Terms and Concepts

Rational-legal, traditional and charismatic authority

Class, status and party

Life chances, styles of life

The State

Bureaucracy (Bureaucratic administration)

Separation of administrator from the means of administration (expropriation)

Bureaucratically administered formal organization

Rationalization (as a social, cultural and organizational phenomenon)

I. Inequality, and its relation to power I. Inequality is an issue of the distribution of power within a political community

A. Why does W talk about inequality in these terms? Why is it important? 1. It’s about how power works in consistent and patterned ways, with a definite structure, within

the legal order created by the state BUT not involving systematic domination or bounded organizations (e.g., family, army, firm)

2. Inequality is an issue of differential power with a specific logic B. W Distinguishes 3 distinct orders or dimensions of inequality

1. This allows W to characterize people with respect to their location in each order, and to specify the intersections and interdependencies among orders

C. Class--which is defined in terms of market position, and in turn determines a person’s life chances D. Status--which is defined as social honor or prestige, and is expressed in terms of style of life E. Party--which is defined with respect to the operation of politics and efforts to influence the operation

of politics, and shapes the use of political power

I. Inequality, and its relation to power

I. Why is this important to sociologists? A. Specifies distinctive bases of collective action--class action based on market position; status

group formation produces status group action or action by a social rank; organized party seeking to influence formal exercise of power produces the action of parties (or factions) 1. interconnections between them rendered explicit and can be explored

B. At the Individual level -- we can think of in terms of distinct interests one can orient to instrumentally, make their inter-relations explicit and explainable

C. Intersections with organized systems of domination/authority, especially political 1. One way, for example--shape access/place of people moving into system of domination

as ruler or staff, their goals, or how people in that sys wields their power over others D. → excellent example of how Weber’s type concepts and analytic specification help deepen

analysis (offering guides of what to look for and how to specify linkages, processes, and so on)

II. Politics and the state I. To talk about politics as a way of life, W first needs to clarify: what is the state?

A. The state, at its most general, is a compulsory political association 1. As a political association, highlights the sense of the state as a community--in this case, a

community defined and bound together by the way it is ruled (similar sense country, or kingdom) 2. Critical feature of that rule is that it’s not voluntary: defines a legal order which can compel

those living under it to act, or not act, in particular way; and membership in it not voluntary 3. But like any system of domination, the staff is key--we’ll delve into this further, but here, it’s

critical to note that more than being identified with a political community, the state for Weber is comprised of a set of organizations -- distinct from ‘society’ -- through which it exercises power

B. How can we better appreciate this? 1. The state ≠ government: the state makes authoritative claims, the right to exercise power over

others, but directed by ruler; government is how the ruler works, to whom responsive 2. See similar sense in Tocqueville w/r administrative centraliz, and indeed, administration is key

II. Politics and the state

I. W further develops notion of “the state” far-reaching effects on the social sciences A. Weber asks, how can we distinguish the state from other political associations? B. Can’t define state by its ends (states have done everything, and no end is peculiar to it)

1. Instead, defined by the means peculiar to it--use of physical force--not the only or normal means, but one specific to state

C. → “State is a human community that (successfully) claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory” 1. Means/Ends distinction is built into definition, and focus is on means 2. Use of force--force as ultimate foundation/guarantor of pol power; threat/reality of force 3. Legitimacy is central -- as to use of this specific means; use of force as a right 4. Monopoly--only the state may use force legitimately; all other uses go against the legal order,

unless permitted by state; states always seek to monopolize legitimate force (disarm others) 5. Territory--rule extends over territory/those live within it; distinct for ex fr/ the powers of Estates

II. Politics and the state

I. Based on this, what defines politics and political life? A. So W redefines politics: = striving to share power or striving to influence the distribution of

power, either among states or among groups within a state B. → Interesting extensions or implications

1. A political question is any issue where interests in the distribribution, maintenance or transfer of political power are involved

2. People who are active in politics, strive for political power: a) either as means serving other ends (which may be ideal or material), b) OR as ‘power for power’s sake’, enjoying “the prestige feeling power gives”

(prestige of power is a form of social honor, then, and in that sense, a group with such power can form a distinct status group--such as ??)

III. The operation and formation of the state

I. State, domination and obedience: from “the state” to the operation of states A. W returns to the issue of systems of domination and their stability, and focuses on the state

1. Since the state is a relation of “men dominating men”--> to exist, the dominated must obey authority claimed by the powers that be

B. Why do they do so? There are two parts to the answer, for Weber 1. Inner justifications of those who obey 2. External (material) means, the machinery of domination

C. Inner justifications = three legitimations of domination (3 forms of legitimate authority) D. External means = how do politically dominant powers manage to maintain their domination?

1. It is a question of organization--that is, of having an administrative staff

III. The operation and formation of the state I. The state and its administrative staff

A. According to W, maintaining domination by force requires an administrative staff, and so we need to see that staff =a material means (or mechanism) of domination

B. Administrators (the staff) are bound by obedience to a power holder by three things 1. Sense of that ruler’s legitimacy 2. Material rewards--from service (vs. what they have based on their class position) 3. Social honor (deriving from service position vs. position outside administration)

C. For W, there are two main varieties of state administration 1. Staff who own means of administration, VS. staff who separated from means of admin (81) 2. “This distinction holds in the same sense in which today we say that the salaried employee and

the proletarian in the capitalistic enterprise is separated from the means of production” 3. Important because if administrators own means, then power holder cannot organize/direct

admin and delegate since administrators use those means “in their own right” (=not dep. others)

III. The operation and formation of the state

I. Bureaucratic administration and the modern state A. Where the lord directs admin, admins have little social honor otherwise and are materially chained to

lord→ this is basis for bureaucratic state, which in its most rational development is modern state B. What is Weber highlighting in his formulation of bur. admin? What kind of rationality? Legitim?

1. Bur admin is rational in form--bounded, structured and planned as a means to achieve a range of ends, involves delineation of offices and relations among them, rules governing exercise of functions and relations among them AND it is impersonal, since it does not depend on particular persons who occupy positions, depends on how perform their job (expertise)

C. Bur Admin is the result of a historical process of separation of the person from the means of admin, in which independent ‘bearers’ of executive power (who in their own right possess means of admin, or warfare, or financial organization) are expropriated by the prince or other political leader (82) 1. Note parallel to expropriation of direct producers in capitalism (Marx), only not limited to ec life

D. Modern state controls total means of political organization, under one head; no official owns $, office

IV. Bureaucracy

I. Bureaucracy as a form of organization A. Can see bureaucracy and bureaucratic administration in mod. state, but NOT limited to the state

1. See that bur admin also characteristic of capitalist enterprise, military, church, schools and universities, charities, sports leagues, even NGOs, voluntary associations, movement groups

B. Chief characteristics 1. Fixed official jurisdictional areas→ officially allocated, authority corresponds, creates ‘office’ 2. Office hierarchy and levels of authority→ ordered system of super- and subordination;

implication: lower levels take on duties delegated from above 3. Management of bureau based on written docs -- the files, records-- sep from personal/private 4. Requires expertise and full-time activity of occupant 5. Follows stable rules that can be learned; office management reduced to rules 6. → Bottom line: is particular form of organization/rel among offices/performance of job in

office, which all depend on the separation of person from position they occupy

IV. Bureaucracy

I. Administration by bureaucracy--Why does it emerge? So what? A. “The decisive reason for the advance of bureaucratic organization has always been its purely

technical superiority over any other form of organization. The fully developed bureaucratic mechanism compares with other organizations exactly as does the machine with the non-mechanical modes of production”

B. What does technical superiority mean here? 1. The focus is on material things--the evaluation of whether person A has claim under law, for

example, or their tax debt; how many are handled, and so on 2. With respect to which, what matters is the efficiency of the organization 3. Bur achieves by: precision, speed, unambiguity, knowledge of the files, continuity, discretion,

unity of direction, strict subordination, decreased friction as well as decreased material and personal costs, resulting from the way it is structured (formal, hierarchical, expertise…)

C. → Q?: What does this say about the kind of action at which bur admin excels?

V. Bureaucracy and Rationalization

I. Critical in own right, bur. central to iron cage/disenchantment (in Protestant Ethic) A. Modern capitalism as it spreads and irresistibly determines the lives of all living under it, demands

official business of admin be discharged precisely this way: specializ of admin functions accd to objective considerations (e.g., cost) & discharge business of office accd to calculable rules and without regard persons, and it only respects and rewards this kind of action

B. → So, mod western capitalism as set of relationships and culture of instrumentality → growth of bur. 1. Spurs the ever greater use of bureaucratic administration because it offers competitive

advantages in an instrumentally rational terms; 2. Creates the conditions for its permanent character: Bureaucracy’s tech advantages depend on

structure, not persons who make it up (cost of doing away, not achieved by replacement) C. As does so, bureaucracy deepens hold of cap and material concerns on daily life (iron cage) and

expands the range and grip of the culture of instrumental rationality and the undermining of value rationality (disenchantment)

V. Bureaucracy and Rationalization I. Restate full character of rationalization as process in light of bureaucracy

A. Rationalization is not only about a focus on material gain, compulsion, & the replacement of meaningful with less meaningful or meaningless action (where we ended up in TPE)

B. As we’ve noted, involves the triumph of instrumental rationality over value-rationality C. As a way of thinking and orienting to the world, this triumph of instrumentally rational action is a cultural

consideration, and amounts to reducing life to instrumentalities and thinking only this way (incl effic) D. These also have an organizational side, which we saw even the image of the iron cage: where people’s

lives are increasingly ordered and organized by and within concrete organizations according to instrumental rationality, emphasizing things like precision, speed, calculability, impersonality, etc.

E. Rationalization has an org face and expands by this means; but goes beyond ⇈ bureaucracy per se: bureaucratically administered formal organizations (BAFOs) -- become pervasive in all spheres of life 1. Where a means of domination that embodies instr. rational principles and able to apply them with

stunning effect comes to dominate all spheres of social life, well beyond ec., incred. durable

Weber Group Exercise

I. As a table group, please discuss and then write a response to the following questions A. Before reading the works for today, what elements of Weber’s analysis would you bring

together to flesh out how Weber understands rationalization in modern society? Lay out the various pieces and try to connect them.

B. Having read the work for today, what role does bureaucracracy -- and the reality of bureaucratically administered formal organizations -- play in the fuller understanding of rationalization? What kind of picture is this?