Weber on Bureaucracy

Four Great Sceptics: Marx
                                Nietzsche
                                Weber
                                Freud

Weber (like Marx) is a Kantian - humans cannot know the objects in themselves, no absolute reality; we only have a mental picture. The ideal types of social organisation – socialism, nationalism, liberalism etc. Ideal type is compared to social reality. There is no absolute knowledge but it is possible to be honest and to have reasonable beliefs (generalized agnosticism).

Four Fundamental Types of Social Action (Weberian Analysis):
1) Instrumental Social Action – Believe it will benefit you
2) Value Rational Action – You have values
3) Affectual Emotional Affirmation/Disaffirmation- because you like/love/dislike/hate tradition
4) Traditional Orientation – Rational Inheritance

Three Types of Domination
Authority + Legitimacy = Dominative Power
Weber states that “all legitimacy contains an element of myth”, which means no one person can truly dominate and just because you are told to do something by someone, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you should.
1) Tradition – Always had power e.g. monarchy, Inheritance, customs, superstitions, ancestor worship.  “We have always done it this way”
2) Charismatic – magical powers, costumes and ceremony e.g. a priest. Charismatic leaders often attack and destroy existing legal national regime. Sometimes the underdog and often have a gimmick or point of interest.
3) Legal – (Rational/ Bureaucratic) – Qualifications, routine, “normality”, professionalism. The rulers often obey the same rules as everyone else.

Weber on Bureaucracy
“Bureau” = a desk, or by extension an office.
“Bureaucracy” = rule conducted from a desk or an office.
Those who invented the word wanted to suggest that the servant was trying to become the master. Weber was aware of this tendency and attacked the Prussian bureaucracy to be an objective and neutral servant of society, above all politics. Weber emphasized that every bureaucracy has interests of their own. The bureaucracy is merely a means to the end.

Modern bureaucracy is developed from the Kings clergy, the ruler does not have to fight or travel much, and they send messages through the bureau. The messages are normally acted upon because of the governments moral authority or prestige, and also because they can be backed up force; police and military. Weber points out that the military has become bureaucratized- Napoleon would watch the battle from horseback, but the modern general sends and receives messages. 

Weber sets out an “ideal type” for bureaucracy- an elaborate hierarchal division of labour, directed by explicit rules, which are impersonally applied. In a bureaucracy a job is full time, life time, and is occupied by a professional staff who live off a salary. Bureaucrats must be removed from property; they only have a salary because if they have any other form of income they will not reliably follow the rules, which is one of the highest values in a bureaucracy. An employee does not own their job, or any of the means of administration, such as; files, chairs or laptops. This is because if they fail to do their job, or someone more efficient for the job becomes available, they can be replaced immediately as the job belongs to the state. It is therefore important in a bureaucratic society to be educated and to have credentials. Weber argues that bureaucracy is the most efficient way of implementing the law.