Criticism for Max Weber

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Criticism for Max Webers Bureaucracy

Written by Dr. Wasim Al-Habil

College of Commerce

The Islamic ni!ersity of "a#a

Beginning $ith Max Weber% bureaucracies ha!e been regar&e& as mechanisms that

rationali#e authority an& &ecision-ma'ing in society. (et subse)uent theorists ha!e

)uestione& the rationality of bureaucracies. Which features of mo&ern-&ay *ublic

bureaucracies are rational+ Which are not+ Buttress your argument $ith citations

from organi#ation an&,or *ublic a&ministration theories.

Intro&uction

Max Webers work about bureaucracy, translated into English in 1946, was one of

the maor contributions that has influenced the literature of !ublic administration"

#owe$er, %an &i!er '199() argues that the work of Weber on bureaucracy has no

influence on *merican +* until the 19-s" .he word bureaucracy is deri$ed from two

words/ 0bureau and 02ratos" While the word 0bureau refers to the office the 3reek

suffix 0kratiaor kratosmeans !ower or rule" .hus we use the word 0bureaucracy to

refer to the !ower of the office '#ummel, 199, 5-()" 0ureaucracy is rule conducted

from a desk or office, i"e" by the !re!aration and dis!atch of written documents and

electronic ones" ureaucracy is borrowed by the field of !ublic administration '+*) from

the field of sociology" 7t was borrowed by +* in much a similar way that !ractices of

business were borrowed from the field of business administration and economics" Weber

'1946) !resents bureaucracy as both a scientific and generic model that can work in both

the !ublic and !ri$ate sectors '&ainey, 1996)" 8or exam!le, Weber asserts that

.he bureaucratic structure goes hand with the concentration of thematerial means of management in the hands of master" .his concentration

occurs, for instance in a well:known and ty!ical fashion, in de$elo!ment

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of big ca!italist enter!rise, which finds their essential characteristics in

this !rocess" * corres!onding !rocess occurs in !ublic organi;ation '1946,


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ex!ectations in an efficient way" *ccording to Weber '1946), bureaucracy 0is, from a

!urely technical !oint of $iew, ca!able of attaining the highest degree of efficiency and is

in this sense formally that most rational known means of carrying out im!erati$e control

o$er human beings '55()"

Weber argues that human ci$ili;ation e$ol$ed from !rimiti$e and mystical to the

rational and com!lex stages and relationshi!s" Weber belie$es that societies mo$e from

the !rimiti$e stage to theoretical and technical ones" *ccording to Weber, the e$olution of

societies is facilitated by three ty!es of authority that he identifies as traditional,

charismatic and legal:rational authority '8ry, 199)" 7t is the legal:rational ty!e of

authority that constitutes the basis of Webers conce!t of bureaucracy and the foundation

of modern ci$ili;ation as it is !remised on 0a belief in the legitimacy of the !attern of

normati$e rules and the rights of those ele$ated to authority under such rules to issue

commands '>tillman, tillman '


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Domination is what Webers conce!t of bureaucracy is all about according to

rian &" 8ry '199) in Mastering Public Administration" 7t is a domination that 0is

exerted through administration and 0that legal domination re@uires bureaucracy for its

exercise '8ry, 199, 1)" ureaucracy, states 8ry, is Webers tool to ex!ress the most

efficient and rational form of organi;ation" y its essence, bureaucracy in$ol$es the

element of control based u!on the ac@uisition of s!ecific ty!es of knowledge" 7t is the

efficient manner in which bureaucracy controls such knowledge that is its hallmark"

Weber states about efficiency and bureaucracy that

Ex!erience tends uni$ersally to sow that the !urely bureaucratic ty!e ofadministrati$e organi;ation that is, the monocratic $ariety of bureaucracy

is, from a !urely technical !oint of $iew, ca!able of attaining the highestdegree efficiency and is in this sense formally the most rational known

means of carrying out im!erati$e control o$er human beings" 7t is su!erior

to any other form of !recision, in stability, in the stringency of itsdisci!line, and its reliability? it is the sco!e of its o!erations, and is

formally ca!able of a!!lication to all kinds of administrati$e tasks 'Weber,

194(, 55()

&ational decision:making is the underlying root to the success of bureaucracy"

.he ideal:ty!e of bureaucracy, according to Weber, !ossesses rationally discussible

grounds for e$ery administrati$e act" 8urther, it dis!enses e@uality in conce!t and

a!!lication as well as establishing relationshi!s based u!on a sense of !ermanence"

*ccording to Weber, bureaucratic organi;ations o!erate 0sine ira ac studio, meaning

without a sense of bias of fa$or, relying solely on a !rofessional decision:maker

'&heinstein, 194, 19-:


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We can critically assess bureaucracies as organi;ations with similar elements to

the ones described by Michel 8oucault '19() in this book, Discipline and Punish: The

Birth of the Prison.*re not the em!loyees of !ublic organi;ations taught certain methods

and norms Do not they follow s!ecific rules, !rocedures and ways of !erforming their

tasks We see structures of societal institutions that remind us of the +ano!ticon/ workers

can see and can be seen" .hey are constantly su!er$ised, analy;ed, tested, and

re!rimanded for not following the norms" +eo!le sense that bureaucracy gets in$ol$ed in

e$ery domain in their life and im!oses its rational restrictions and sometimes the

irrational ones, which are discussed in the next !art of this essay"

Bureaucracy% Ca*italism% / Democracy

Weber generally im!lies that bureaucracy exists e$erywhere in a ca!italistic

society" Webers conce!tuali;ations of ca!italism and bureaucracy are 0mutually

su!!orti$e structures '8ry, 199, 55)" Ca!italism and bureaucracy re@uire the same

im!ersonal ty!e of communication, one based on transactions that re@uire legal and

ethical beha$ior in order to !erform successfully"

Fn the other hand, bureaucracy and democracy ha$e a different ty!e of

relationshi!" 7t is that relationshi! which hel!s form the core of the intellectual res!onse

by the field of !ublic administration to the integration of many Webers organi;ation

theory tenets" 7t is a relationshi! that is built u!on influential statements by Weber and

future analyses of his efforts on the subect by scholars in the realm of +*" ureaucracy is

the means for achie$ing rationally ordered social action" .he @uestion for !ublic

administrators is what ha!!ens if bureaucracy exceeds its bounds" 8irst, let me offer

Webers res!onse to that @uestion, which could be found in his thoughts on democracy"

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>!ecifically, democracy of a s!ecial ty!e is one where leaders are chosen to lead" Fn

democracy, Weber writes

7n a democracy !eo!le choose a leader in whom they trust" .hen the

chosen leader says, 0Gow shut u! and obey me" +eo!le and !arty are nolonger free to interfere in his business ? Hater the !eo!le can sit in

udgment" 7f the leader has made a mistake I to the gallows with himJ

'3erth K Mills, 1946, 6)

+olitical leadershi! in a democratic framework is necessary for su!remacy of the

!olitics o$er the bureaucracy" .his central issue is a !rime concern for Weber as well as

for the scholars of +*" 0+assi$e democrati;ation is a !rocess by which Weber describes

that the bureaucratic elements control its democratic !artici!ants by controlling task

com!letion" When there are too few control outcomes, there will be a danger of elite

status or control grou!s, which becomes difficult to dislodge" %ictor .hom!son '1961)

ex!lains that bureaucrats sometimes ado!t beha$ior !atterns to dominate control o$er

!eo!le by using their authority"

.he disconnection between !rofessionals and citi;ens has been !resented

succinctly by *lexander and &ichmond '


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ex!ression of will, !artici!ation, !ersuasion, and considering the $oices of each citi;en"

ut to come u! with the democratic administration is not an easy mission because

bureaucracy itself is the tool which is a!!lied in the administration to get the work done"

ureaucracy itself is not democratic because it is based on hierarchy"

Irrationalities,0imitations of Bureaucracy

&obert Merton '19


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rights in any country negates the claim that the bureaucratic model is an idealistic and

!latonic system" ureaucracy of Weber has not demonstrated that it is 0fully de$elo!ed

structure under the regular conditions in reality" +eter lau and Marshall Meyer '19()

argue that 0since !erfect bureaucrati;ation is ne$er fully reali;ed, no existing

organi;ation !recisely fits the ideal ty!e? AwhichB does not !ro$ide understanding of

concrete bureaucratic structure '


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the !ublic and !ri$ate organi;ations as well" .he existence and im!ortance of informal

organi;ation, which is defined as 0the aggregate of the !ersonal contacts and interactions

and the associated grou!ing of !eo!le 'arnard, 1966, 11), is highly acce!ted in the

field of management" arnard '1966) affirms that 0informal organi;ations are necessary

to the o!eration of formal organi;ations as a mean of communication, of cohesion, and of

!rotecting the integrity of the indi$iduals '1


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a real !erson '


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'1999)" Names Wilson '199) clarifies that there are three ways in which !olitical !ower

may be gathered undesirably into bureaucratic hands

by the growth of an administrati$e a!!aratus so large as to be immune

from !o!ular control, by !lacing !ower o$er a go$ernmentalbureaucracy of any si;e in !ri$ate rather than !ublic hands, or by $esting

discretionary authority in the hands of !ublic agency so that the exercise

of that !ower is not res!onsi$e to the !ublic good 'Hane, 1999, 4-)"

Meier and F.oole 'tillman,


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dominate the decision:making !rocess will continue to consolidate their !osition within

the society"

*merican liberal thought is a maor source of frustration to those who seek a

theoretical base that integrates democratic and bureaucratic theory" .his tension generates

a conflict between democratic and bureaucratic !ers!ecti$es on go$ernance and !recludes

an effecti$e integration of the two" What seems clear is that the conflict between

bureaucracy and democracy is stee!ed in 0!rimordial contro$ersy '&ohr, 196, 9:(5)"

* discourse on the tensions between bureaucracy and democracy could !ro$ide guidance

to administrators through a better understanding of the conce!tual barriers to the

de$elo!ment of a theory of democratic administration"

.he tension between bureaucracy and democracy leads the discussion to the

issues of legitimacy of bureaucracy, !ower, discretion, and udgment in the field of !ublic

administration" >ti$ers '


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no system at al, but a bungling, erry:built contra!tion wallowing in efficiency

and shot through with corru!tion and fa$oritism 'Wilson @uoted in >tillman,


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Many researchers examine the assum!tion that democracy and bureaucracy are

incom!atible" #owe$er, they conclude that bureaucracies res!ond to local electoral

!olitics in way that reinforces and im!ro$es democratic controls '>chol; K #eadrick,

1991,


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!ersonal freedom '8ry, 199, 55)" #e reali;es that bureaucracy limits indi$idual freedom

and makes it difficult if not im!ossible for indi$iduals to understand their acti$ities in

relation to the organi;ation as a whole" Most im!ortantly, bureaucracy fa$ors what Weber

called the 0cri!!led !ersonality of the s!ecialties '8ry, 199, 55)"

Due to the irreconcilable differences between the administrati$e traditions that

were !resented by the founding fathers and the im!ossibility of managing a modern

society without bureaucracy, it is not sur!rising that scholars within the field of !ublic

administration ha$e so far failed to come u! with an ade@uate theoretical base to ex!lain

the relationshi! between bureaucracy and re!resentati$e go$ernment 'Warner,


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eferences

*lexander, Nennifer and &ichmond, >am" 'ixth Edition, oston 1-5

1(


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Mc>wite, F" C" '199()"*egitimac$ in Public Administration+ a Discourse Anal$sis" >age

+ublications, 7nc"

Merton, &obert" '19imon

and >huster

&ohr, N" *" '19)" +rofessionalism, Hegitimacy and the Constitution"Public

Administration ,uarterl$, '4), 4-1:41"

&ohr, Nohn *" '196)" To un a 'onstitution, 9:(5" '>eminar in +ublic*dministration, Course +acket, Dr" 2enneth #anson)"

>chol;, Nohn K #edrick, arbara/ .wombly, Nim" '1991)" >treet:He$el +olitical

Controls o$er 8ederal ureaucracy"American Political %cience e!ie":"hafrit; N" K #yde *"C" '199() Classics of +ublic *dministration" Frlando#arcourt race College +ublishers"

>imon #" '1946)"Administrati!e Beha!ior" Gew Pork, GP 8ree +ress"

.hom!son, %ictor" '1961)"Modern -rganiation" Gew Pork *lfred *" 2no!f"

%entriss, C" '

Criticism for Max Weber

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