Talk

What is a Weberian view?

Max Weber (1864-1920)
Bureaucracy: a highly structured hierarchical from of organisation based upon legal-rational authority
The fundamental characteristics of bureaucracy, for Weber, are:
A continuous organisation of official functions bound by rules
A specified sphere of competence. This involves:
a sphere of obligation to perform functions which has been marked off as part of a systematic division of labour;
the provision of the incumbent with the necessary authority to carry out these functions;
that the necessary means of compulsion are clearly defined, and their use is subject to definite conditions.
The organisation of offices follows the principle of hierarchy; that is each lower office is under the control and supervision of a higher one.
The rules which regulate the conduct of an official may be technical rules or norms…
…the administrative staff should be completely separated from the ownership of the means of production …[and] that is also a complete absence of appropriation of his official position by the incumbent
Administrative acts , decisions, and rules are formulated and recorded in writing
the office if filled by a free contractual relationship
Candidates are selected on the basis of technical qualifications. this is tested by examination or guaranteed by diploma certifying technical training or both. they are appointed not elected.
They are remunerated by fixed salary in money, for the most part with a right to pensions.
the office is treated as a sole, or at least primary occupation of the incumbent
It constitutes a career. there is a system of promotion according to seniority , or achievement or both,. Promotion is dependant on the judgement of superiors.

The officers carry out their duty in

a spirit of formalistic impersonality, "Sine ira et studio", without hatred or passion, and hence without affection or enthusiasm. The dominant norms are concepts of straightforward duty, without regard to personal considerations. Everyone is subject to formal equality of treatment; that is, everyone in the same empirical situation.

According to Weber this

purely bureaucratic type of administrative organisation is …capable of attaining the highest degree of efficiency…It is superior to any other from in precision, stability, in the stringency of its discipline, and its reliability. It thus makes possible a particularly high degree of calculability of results for the heads of the organisation and for those acting in relation to it . It is finally superior both in intensive efficiency and in the scope of its operations, and is formally capable of application to all types of administrative tasks.

From Weber, M The Theory of Social and Economic Organisations: Wirtshaft und Gesellschaft

CRITIQUES

The informalist critique: is that the ideal type, by concentrating on formal structure of bureaucracy ignores the way in which formal arrangements are modified by the spontaneous interaction of the members of the bureaucracy. People in organisations are not one dimensional 'officials' acting in complete accord with the rules of the organisation.. They attempt to exert some degree of control over the organisational environment in which they work developing a work culture of leaders cliques communication methods and so on. By neglecting these informal relationships, the critics argue, Weber 'excludes from analysis the most dynamic aspects of formal organisations.'.

The dysfunctionalist critique is that Weber was so concerned with the functional aspects of bureaucracy that the concomitant dysfunctions were ignored for example :
Discipline - conformity to the rules of the organisation - is clearly essential to the attainment of precision , reliability and efficiency, but the very process by which discipline is inculcated in the bureaucrat can lead to the displacement of goals. Instead of being instrumental means to the achievement of the ends of the organisation, the rules become ends in themselves.
The other aspect of discipline - the acceptance of the directives of superiors - makes possible the coordination of large numbers of people, but may also result in the refusal of the bureaucrat to accept responsibility for decisions.
The non-competitive situation created by the principle of promotion by seniority allows the development of a high esprit de corps, tending to maximise the bureaucrats sense of duty. However the group spirit engendered by this lack of competition often leads to bureaucrats defending their common entrenched interests against elected higher officials.
What the criticisms of Weber don't really address is the problem that Weber's ideal type was designed to solve;

Weber was concerned with the notion of legitimate authority: the grounds on which rulers justify their demands for obedience and which the ruled accept as moral imperatives.

The Weberian view of Politics is:

A state of human community that successfully claims the monopoly of the means of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory. The sate is considered the sole source of the right to use violence.

Weber identifies three ideal types of legitimate authority.

1. Traditional authorityrests "on an established belief in the sanctity of immemorial traditions and the legitimacy of the status of those exercising authority under them. Provided the ruler rules within tradition it is open to free favour and arbitrariness where the ruler rules 'at pleasure as sympathy or antipathy move him…"

Under such system the following features are absent : clearly defined sphere of competence subject to impersonal rules; a rational ordering of relations of superiority and inferiority; a regular system of appointment and promotion on the basis of free contract; technical training as a regular requirement; fixed salaries paid in money

2. Charismatic authority rests on the devotion of the followers to the leader, given by his 'gift of grace'…

3. Legal authority rests on the acceptance of the laws enacted by proper procedure .legitimised not on a personal basis but because the officer is in a legally established position.

Having placed bureaucracy within this context of ideal types it is clear that Weber was not primarily concerned with organisational efficiency. His object in construction the ideal type was to understand the distinctive characteristics of the administrative apparatus of legal rational authority, as compared to traditional or charismatic authority.

When we look to reform we need to look at what and why we are reforming. Most Public admin starts with a look at Weber. When we dispense with him and move on because of perceived inefficiency we need to think about the kinds of authority that the new administrative regimes can develop. Weber was primarily concerned with managerial efficiency but political theory on a broader canvas - a historical analysis of authority and administration.

-- from http://www.gu.edu.au/text/centre/kceljag/eljag/03_what/kel7022/unit1.html.