theory essay ( two to three pages)
Alexsi
WeberPresentation.pptmMax Weber
Bureaucracy
Characteristics of Bureaucracy
Principle of fixed and official jurisdictional areas
Ordered by rules—laws or administrative regulations
Regular Activities are fixed via official duties
Authority to give command
Methodically provisioned
Generally regulated qualifications required to serve.
-Authority to give command is stably distributed and strictly delimited by rules, which may be placed at the disposal of the officials
-Methodical provision is made for the continuous fulfillment of these duties.
-Only persons who have the generally regulated qualifications to serve are employed
These elements above constitute what Weber describes as “Bureaucratic Authority”
In private economies, they constitute economic management.
Bureaucracy is fully developed in political and ecclesiastical communities in the modern state and in private economy, in the most advanced institutions of capitalism.
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Characteristics of Bureaucracy
Principles of Office Hierarchy and Levels of Graded Authority
Firmly Ordered System
Monocratically Organized
Does not matter if “private” or “public” authority
Super and subordination, which there is supervision of the lower offices by the higher. The governed is given the possibility to appeal the decision of a lower office to its higher authority, but in a regulated manner.
Found in all bureaucratic structures: State and church structures, as well as large party organizations and private enterprises.
When the principle of jurisdictional “competency” is fully carried through, does not necessarily mean that the higher authority is simply authorized to take over the business of the lower. The opposite is the rule. Once established and task fulfilled, an office usually tends to continue its existence and be held via another incumbent.
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Characteristics of Bureaucracy
Management of the Modern Office
Based upon written documents
Staffed by Subaltern Officials and Scribes
Body of Officials actively Engaged in “Public” Office
Civil Service separates bureau from the private domicile of the official
These written documents also known as “The Files” are preserved in their original or draught form.
The body of officials along with a respective apparatus of material implements and the files make up a “bureau”.
In private enterprise, the “bureau” is often called “the office”
Bureaucracy segregates official activity as something distinct from the sphere of private life.
Public Monies and equipment are also divorced from the property of the official.
This separation is found in private enterprises as well. It is often the the leading entrepreneur exercises the same principle. This process has been found as early as the middle ages.
The idea that bureau activities of the state are intrinsically different in character from management of private economic offices is a continental European notion and by way of contrast, is totally foreign to the American way.
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Office Management- Specialized
Office Management- Fully Developed
Distinctly Modern
Holds the modern executive and employee of private enterprises in the same manner as the state official
Official activity demands full working capacity of the official
The product of long development for public and private office.
Characteristics of Bureaucracy
Specialized:
Management is distinctly modern– presupposes thorough and expert training.
Fully Developed:
The working capacity of the official, irrespective of the fact that is obligatory time in the bureau may be firmly delimited.
In all cases, the normal state of affairs was reverse: official business was discharged as a secondary activity.
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Characteristics of Bureaucracy
General Rules of Office Management
Knowledge of these rules represent the technical learning officials possess.
The rules are deeply embedded.
The management of the office follows general rules.
The theory of modern public administration assumes that the authority to order certain matters by decree-legally granted to public authorities- does not entitle the bureau to regulate the matter by commands given by each case, buy only to regulate the matter abstractly.
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The Position of the Official
Office Holding is a “vocation”
Nature of Duty
Not considered a usual exchange of services for equivalents
Does not relationship to a person, but modern loyalty is devoted to impersonal and functional purposes.
In a fully developed modern state, not a personal servant of a ruler.
First is the requirement of firmly prescribed course of training that demands the entire capacity for work for a long period of time. Additionally, special examinations are prerequisites of employment.
This nature of duty determines the internal structure of relations of the official. Legally and actually, office holding is not considered to be exploited, which was normally and frequently the case in the Middle Ages.
Entrance of office, including private economies, is considered an acceptance of a specific obligation of faithful management in return for a secure existence.
Functional purposes, the ideas of culture-values stand. Ideas such as “state”, “church”, “community”, “party” are realized in the community and provide an ideological halo for the personal master.
In former times, leaders acted upon the personal command of their master.
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The Personal Position of the Official
Always strives and usually enjoys a distinct social esteem
The possession of educational certificates linked with qualification for office.
Status factor is individually explicit and impassively acknowledged.
Social position is guaranteed by the prescriptive rules of rank order, for the political official, by special definitions of the criminal code against “insults of officials” and “contempt” of state and church authorities.
Social position higher when there is a strong demand for administration by trained experts, strong and stable social differentiation. Usually derived from socially and economically privileged strata because of the distribution of power.
Certificates or patents enhance the status element of the official.
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The Position of the Official
Appointed by a Superior Authority
Elected official by the governed not purely bureaucratic figure.
Formal election, by no means, by itself means no appointment.
The elected official’s position is derived from powerful party men, who also determine his further career.
Not primarily dependent on his chief of administration
Usually the social esteem of officials are low when the demand for expert administration and the dominance of status conventions are weak .This is especially the case in the US.
Often the case in new settlements by virtue of their wide fields of profitmaking and instability of the social stratification.
Once firmly organized, the parties can turn a formally free election into the mere acclamation of a candidate designation by the party chief. Free election is then turned into a fight, conducted by definite rules, for votes in favor of one of the two designated candidates.
Official who is not elected, but appointed by a chief normally functions from a technical point of view.
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The Position of the Official
Appointed by a Superior Authority
Elected official by the governed not purely bureaucratic figure.
Formal election, by no means, by itself means no appointment.
The elected official’s position is derived from powerful party men, who also determine his further career.
Not primarily dependent on his chief of administration
Usually the social esteem of officials are low when the demand for expert administration and the dominance of status conventions are weak .This is especially the case in the US.
Often the case in new settlements by virtue of their wide fields of profitmaking and instability of the social stratification.
Once firmly organized, the parties can turn a formally free election into the mere acclamation of a candidate designation by the party chief. Free election is then turned into a fight, conducted by definite rules, for votes in favor of one of the two designated candidates.
Official who is not elected, but appointed by a chief normally functions from a technical point of view.
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The Position of the Official
When demand for trained experts is considerable…
Intellectually developed, educated, freely moving “public opinion”
Use of unqualified officials fall back on the party in power
Holds (at least) large bodies of administration difficult to supervise.
-Normally, this is more likely to happen when the officials are appointed by the chief.
Demand for trained administration now exists in the US, but in large cities, where immigrant votes are “corralled” there is no educated public opinion. Therefore, popular elections of the administration chief and also of his subordinates officials that usually endanger the expert qualification of the official and the functioning of bureaucratic mechanism.
Weakens the dependence of the officials upon the hierarchy
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The Position of the Official
“Caesarist” fashion of Reform
Grows out of Democracy
Rests generally in the position as a free trustee of the masses, who is unfettered by tradition
“Rule of Personal Genius”
This “Caesar” is unrestrained master of a body of highly qualified military officers and officials who he selects freely and personally without regard to tradition or to any other considerations.
The rule of personal genius, however, stands in contradiction to the formally “democratic” principle of elected officialdom.
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The Position of the Official
Length of Position
Normally held for life, at least in public bureaucracies
In private enterprise, official normally holds tenure
Legal or actual-life tenure is not recognized as the official’s right to possess office.
Measure of “independence” legally guaranteed by tenure
Development decreases for career opportunities for ambitious candidates for office.
Tenure for life is presupposed, even when repeated or periodic notice of appointed is given as notice.
Where legal guarantees against arbitrary dismissal or transfer are developed, they merely serve to guarantee a strictly objective discharge of specific office duties free from all personal considerations.
Measure of “independence” legally guaranteed by tenure not always a source of increased status for the official whose position is thus secured.
-A strong development of “right to office” naturally makes if more difficult to staff them with regard to technical efficiency.
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The Position of the Official
Salary Considerations
Fixed Salary
Old age security in the form of pension
Wage dependent on “Status”
Great income security
Rewarding Social Esteem
Usually set for a “career”
Desired fixed terms of promotion based on “seniority”
Tenure for life is presupposed, even when repeated or periodic notice of appointed is given as notice.
Where legal guarantees against arbitrary dismissal or transfer are developed, they merely serve to guarantee a strictly objective discharge of specific office duties free from all personal considerations.
Measure of “independence” legally guaranteed by tenure not always a source of increased status for the official whose position is thus secured.
-A strong development of “right to office” naturally makes if more difficult to staff them with regard to technical efficiency.
Officials received the regular pecuniary compensation of a fixed salary and pension.
Wage is not measured in terms of work done, but according to “status”. According to kind of function and possibly length of service.
Income security and social esteem makes office position highly sought after. Especially in countries where colonial profits are no longer provided opportunities.
Moves from the lower, less important and lower paid to the higher positions.
There is a natural desire for mechanical fixing of promotion by officials, if not by office, but by salary levels.
Also, terms should hold grades in expert examinations to some regard in promotion considerations.
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Any Questions?
