BUREAUCRACY AND POWER: WEBER AND MICHELS SOCI 302 Spring 2012 Instructor: Deniz Yükseker Koç University

BUREAUCRACY ACCORDING TO WEBER Modern officialdom functions in the following way: 1- Bureaucratic authority consists of: official duties, authority to give commands, qualified people are employed to fulfill duties 2- a system of super- and sub- ordination; principle of hierarchical office authority (states, parties, ecclesiastical structures, private enterprises) 3- the existence of bureaus (staff of lower officials and scribes) Separation of the public monies and equipment of officialdom from private property of the official (including the private enterprise and the entrepreneur)

Cont’d 4- office management necessitates expert training (including economic enterprises) 5- office management is a full-time job 6- office management is based on rules, which can be learned. 7- bureaucracies are impersonal

Bureaucracy accompanies mass democracy: It is based on the leveling of economic and social differences It is a result of demands for “equality before law” **Paid professionals replace people who perform functions based on inherited privileges (the notables)

Cont’d Parallel between bureaucratization and democratization But, this should not be confused with democracy (rule by the demos-the people) Instead of increasing direct rule by people, in this case, democratization refers to the “leveling of the governed” in opposition to the ruling group The modern mass army is also an example of bureaucratization, and hence, democratization (modern army replaces the self-equipped army of notables)

Weber on Bureaucracy and Power “Bureaucracy is the means of carrying ‘community action’ over into rationally ordered ‘societal action.’ Therefore, as an instrument for the ‘societalizing’ relations of power, bureaucracy has been and is a power instrument of the first order – for the one who controls the bureaucratic apparatus.” “A ‘societal action,’ which is methodically ordered and led, is superior to every resistance of ‘mass’ or even of ‘communal action.’ And where the bureaucratization of administration has been completely carried through, a form of power relation is established that is practically unshatterable.”

Backgrounder on types of social action (Weber) Weber’s definition of communal action: action which is oriented to the feeling of the actors that they belong together. In other words, action by a group of people motivated by a sense of solidarity, of belonging together. Associative (societal) action: action oriented towards a rationally motivated adjustment of interests. In other words, action in which individuals are motivated to cooperate by the calculation that this will serve their individual ends.

Backgrounder: Weber’s Conceptualization of Rationality Substantive rationality: values or value clusters that guide people in their daily lives, especially in their choice of means to ends Formal rationality: rational calculation of means to ends based on universally applied rules, regulations and laws Formal rationality is institutionalized in large scale structures such as bureaucracy, modern law, capitalist economy

Cont’d Bureaucrats cannot evade their duties within the apparatus The ruled cannot dispense with, or replace the bureaucratic apparatus, once it is in existence e.g. Improbability of revolutions (forceful creation of new formations of authority)

BUREAUCRACY AND POWER: OLIGARCHY

Robert Michels (1876-1936) Political Parties (1911) German sociologist; student of Max Weber. Although initially socialist, he later abandoned socialism and supported Mussolini’s fascism

Robert Michels on “oligarchy” Oligarchy: there is an aristocratic tendency in every organization (political parties, professional unions, associations)  “iron law of oligarchy” Why?

Dilemma of democracy Organization is necessary for democracy but Organization also hinders democracy over time  oligarchy His observations were based on the experience of socialist trade unions and the Social Democratic Party (SPD) in Germany

Organization is based on the principle of least effort Weapon of the weak against the strong BUT As the membership of an organization increases, representation of the “rank and file” becomes impossible

Differentiation of functions as the organization develops Need for delegation: delegates who represent the masses Incresingly, delegates and leaders are appointed based on their education, rather than direct election

Oligarcy: division between a minority of directors and the majority of the directed As the numbers increase in an organization, Relative equality turns into an oligarchy in which some have power, and the majority does not

Because directors hold power in an organization, the maintanance and growth of the organization becomes a goal in itself The original goals of the organization are lost The directors of organizations become elite groups with ties to the ruling class