Abstract

The perspective of all modern scholars on the subject of bureaucracy is probably conditioned by the extent of their exposure to the pioneering work of Max Weber. If it is assumed that all there is to bureaucracy is the collection of features, primarily structural, identified by Weber in his famous essay, then there is little doubt that the problem is solved. But surely the transformation of this highly abstract ideal type into an easily demolished straw man can be of little comfort to the millions who today dread the implications of bureaucratization. Weber's main scholarly concern, then, was with the progressive rationalization of the world and its impact on human relationships. In Weber's view modern man had subdued his environment, but not simply because of the refinement of bureaucratic decision-making systems, such systems only represent a mode of thought which holds that both nature and society are subject to ascertainable regularities. That is, the individuals who shaped the industrial development of the West were not so much scientists as they were firm believers in the efficacy of science.