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A bureaucracy is an organization of non-elected officials of a government or organization who implement the rules, laws, and functions of their institution,[1] and are occasionally characterized by officialism and red tape.[2]
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Bureaucracies date back to ancient societies across the globe.
The Weberian bureaucracy has its origin in the works by Max Weber (1864-1920), who was a notable German sociologist, political economist and administrative scholar, who had contributed immensely to the study of bureaucracy and administrative discourses and literatures, during the mid 1800s and early 1900s. Max Weber belongs to the Scientific School of Thought, who among others, discussed intensely on subject-matters, such as, specialization of job-scope, merit system, uniform principles, structure and hierarchy, to name a few. 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 Simon (1916-2001), Dwight Waldo (1913-2000), and others.[3]
Bureaucratic administration means fundamentally domination through knowledge
— Max Weber[4]
Weber described many ideal types of public administration and government in his magnum opus Economy and Society (1922). His critical study of the bureaucratisation of society became one of the most enduring parts of his work.[4][5] It was Weber who began the studies of bureaucracy and whose works led to the popularization of this term.[6] Many aspects of modern public administration go back to him, and a classic, hierarchically organized civil service of the Continental type is called "Weberian civil service".[7] As the most efficient and rational way of organizing, bureaucratization for Weber was the key part of the rational-legal authority, and furthermore, he saw it as the key process in the ongoing rationalization of the Western society.[4][5]
Weber listed several precondititions for the emergence of the bureaucracy.[8] The growth in space and population being administered and the growth in complexity of the administrative tasks being carried out and the existence of a monetary economy resulted in a need for a more efficient administrative system.[8] Development of communication and transportation technologies made more efficient administration possible but also in popular demand, and democratization and rationalization of culture resulted in demands that the new system treats everybody equally.[8]
Weber's ideal bureaucracy is characterized by hierarchical organization, delineated lines of authority in a fixed area of activity, action taken on the basis of and recorded in written rules, bureaucratic officials need expert training, rules are implemented by neutral officials, career advancement depends on technical qualifications judged by organization, not individuals.[4][8]
The decisive reason for the advance of bureaucratic organization has always been its purely technical superiority over any other form of organization
— Max Weber[7]
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.[4][9] In order to counteract bureaucrats, the system needs entrepreneurs and politicians.[4]
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