Theory of Bureaucracy by Max Weber

"Bureaucratic administration means fundamentally domination through knowledge."

— Max Weber

Modern bureaucracies arose as the government of states grew larger during the modern period, and especially following the Industrial Revolution. During the ongoing rationalization of western society, Weber saw bureaucratisation as the most efficient and rational way to organise. According to him bureaucratization was the key part of the rational-legal authority.

Weber listed several precondititions for the emergence of the bureaucracy.

• The growth in space and population being administered;
• The growth in complexity of the administrative tasks being carried out;
• The existence of a monetary economy.

With the advent of modern mode of transportation and digital information technologies, quick and efficient administration became possible. Also, Democratization and rationalization of culture demanded that the new system treats everybody equally.

"The decisive reason for the advance bureaucratic organization has always been its purely technical superiority over any other form of organization."

Features of Weber's bureaucratic model

Fixed division of labour

No confusion over roles and official duties + With repeatedly performance at a particular job s/he become efficient at it + minimize arbitrary assignments of duties visible traditional structures.

Hierarchy

There is a chain of command so that Each office should be controlled and supervised by a higher ranking office. However, lower offices should maintain a right to appeal decisions made higher in the hierarchy.

Rational-legal authority

This type of authority rests on the belief in the "legality" of formal rules and hierarchies. Authority is given to officials based on their skills, position and authority placed formally in each position.

Rules

Management follows a set of rules, known to all employees. Rules prevent arbitrariness since they equally applicable to everyone + Help in increasing efficiency and to avoid mistakes.

Impersonality

To carry out their duties without allowing themselves to be influenced by their personal likes and dislikes.

Expertise

Employees selected on the basis of technical qualification + through a competitive examination + Official selected then appointed and not elected.

Career System

A well structured career path is constituted + Employee expects to be promoted from lower position to higher position + Promotion is based upon merit and seniority.

Written Documents

Every transaction , decision and order of organisation is recorded + Files and computer records constitutes 'memory' of organisation + Help in efficient decision-making in the future.

Efficiency

Most efficient form of organisation + just like machines are more productive, bureaucracy is more efficient. Both Machines and Bureaucracy , have the advantage of technical superiority.

While recognizing bureaucracy as the most efficient form of organization, and even indispensable for the modern state, Weber also saw it as a threat to individual freedoms, and the ongoing bureaucratization as leading to a "polar night of icy darkness", in which increasing rationalization of human life traps individuals in the aforementioned "iron cage" of bureaucratic, rule-based, rational control.

In order to counteract bureaucrats, the system needs entrepreneurs and politicians.

"It is hard to imagine today, but a hundred years ago bureaucracy meant something positive. It connoted a rational, efficient method of organization – something to take the place of the arbitrary exercise of power by authoritarian regimes. Bureaucracy brought the same logic to government work that the assembly line brought to the factory. With the hierarchical authority and functional a specialization, they made possible the efficient undertaking of large complex tasks."

-Gaebler

Among the scholars of his contemporaries are, Frederick Taylor (1856-1915), Henri Fayol (1841-1925), Elton Mayo (1880-1949), and later scholars, such as, Herbert A. Simon (1916-2001), Dwight Waldo (1913-2000).