Authority Bureaucracy. They (Jesus, a professor or a scientists, a Queen or King, slave traders)...

Preview:

Citation preview

Authority Bureaucracy

They (Jesus, a professor or a scientists, a Queen or King, slave traders) are leaders in the sense that they issue commands and others follow their commands.

Only in the extreme case of slavery there is no free compliance. (“Power”)

Commands are obeyed by a certain group out of “voluntary compliance.” (Authority)

“voluntary compliance implies that people obey because they have some sort of interest in obedience.”

1. material interest (salary, economic status, etc.)

2. custom

These two factors (material Interests and Custom), do not, even taken together, form a sufficiently reliable basis for a social order.

This is the additional and decisive factor

people find the given commands (laws, policies) to be valid.

they constitute the basis of action for its own sake (not for self interest or other consequences).

Based on their validity:1. Traditional2. Legal-Rational3. Charismatic

For example the Queen was the supreme authority in both England and Canada

“belief in the sanctity of traditions” Basis of the legitimacy of traditional

authority.

Designated according to traditionally transmitted rules

(such as kings and queens designated according to the royal kinship).

The personal authority of the individual

What is obeyed is the person in authority

subjects

follow the person in the authority status

The traditional laws

The legitimate grounds of authority

Belief in the traditionalLaws and values (sacred)

The person in authorityis obeyed

For example: the authority of the Prime Minister in Canada or of the professors at the university.

“They are elected or appointed on the basis of the legally established rules.”

“a belief in the 'legality' of enacted rules”

enacted through rational discussion and deliberation and thus subject to change

Consistent and logical (not contradictory and conflicting laws)

Traditional: When parents say “because I said so!” They rely on the traditional idea of

parental authority

parents negotiate the rules with children and let the rules and not merely the parental authority govern parent-child relationship

a consistent system of law rationally enacted

Constitution laws (parliament government, et.)

Is subject to an impersonal order (the rule of law where the ruler is not beyond the law)

“in free countries the law ought to be king; and there ought to be no other.“

It is on the basis of these rules or procedures that those elevated to authority attain the right to issue commands.

a member of the groupEqual Status

(Citizens and not “subjects”, “disciples” or “follower”.)

owe the obedience not to the person in authority as an individual, but to the impersonal order.

The legally Established

Laws

The legallyelected or appointed

authority

The Right to issueCommands (laws)

People belief in the legality of the laws

The laws are followednot the person

For example: the historical figures such as Gandhi, Lenin, Khomeini, or famous actors, singers etc.

Their followers believed they had exceptional and extraordinary qualities and thus obey the orders given by them.

Belief in the exceptional and extraordinary qualitiesof the leader (charisma)

Devotion to the charismaticLeader (emotional)

The commandsand orders areobeyed

The purest type of exercise of legal – rational authority

Domination on the basis of technical qualifications and the greatest possible length of technical training.

without hatred or passion, and hence without affection or enthusiasm and without purely personal, irrational, and emotional elements which escape calculation.

depends on its “impersonality.”: Because it eliminates the essential

aspects of humanity, bureaucracy is “dehumanizing” .

Bureaucracy is the most efficient form of organizing the public affairs.

The management of the modern office is based upon written documents ('the files').

Impersonal: independent of the persons working in the office (e.g. independent of personal oral communication in issuing policies, plans, etc.)

The expansion of Bureaucratization was linked to the following four factors:

Into new areas of welfare provision and economic regulation

The growing employment of clerical, technical and managerial personnel within the capitalist enterprises

Bureaucracy creates conflicting tendencies by promoting and at the same time restricting:

1. Individual freedom 2. Democracy

Promotes personal freedom

People are freed from:a) the old forms of

personal relations and ties of loyalty (kinship, gender, race)

b) property and other external considerations (the class)

Restricts individual freedom

1. The size of organizations beyond the reach of individual.

2. Eliminates individuals’ chance to act out of their conviction and Passion

Promotes Democracy Breaking down

traditional privilege and patrimonial domination (as explained above).

Restricts Democracy due to the power of

experts (the appointed bureaucrats) to obstruct the power of the head of the bureaucracy (i.e. the democratically elected prime ministers, premiers, et.)

Today’s entrepreneur or political leader

Follow the logic of possible means over the assertion of ends

Ideal entrepreneur or political leader

the innovative, risk-taking who acts with passion and conviction.

Because of its: 1. ability to coordinate action over a

large area, 2. continuity of operation, 3. monopoly of expertise and control

of the files, 4. internal social cohesion and morale.

The Marxist belief that the overthrow of capitalism would inaugurate the classless society

This is caused by: 1. The state ownership of the means of

production and Planned Economy

2. The extension of equal citizenshipcitizens in socialist systems expect the

government to provide employment, health care, education, housing, etc.

The countervailing power structures that existed within capitalist society, in particular that of private capitalism itself, would be removed.

Weber’s prediction that the revolution had thrown up a new bureaucratic ruling class, coordinated and disciplined by the institution of the Communist Party soon became a commonplace.

Recommended