Custom essays: Government Essay

Government Essay Set #1
Ginsberg, Lowi and Weir argue that “bureaucracy is nothing more nor less than a form of organization. They go on to argue that “Bureaucracy is a form of rule by offices and desks.” These structurally based definitions populate bureaucracy with rational actors. Explore this interpretation of bureaucracy and bureaucrats.

When considering the phenomenon of bureaucracy a clear distinction should made between the mass consciousness that mostly perceives it critically as a mechanism of public administration, and sociological and political science approaches on the other hand. In accordance with these approaches bureaucracy is characterized as a specific form of social organization, not a limited by only the official sphere of public life. In a narrower sense, bureaucratic organizations are systematically managed target associations, the internal structure of which is formed so as to be able to realize their goals in the fullest extent possible and without any complications.
Thus, the most obvious visible sign of bureaucratic organization is its target rationality. Application of this specific bureaucratic principle is justified in many areas of life in modern industrial society, including areas that were previously managed by people voluntarily. As a consequence, the bureaucracy has not only its organizational perspective, the bureaucratization becomes a common social phenomenon, describing and defining the behavior of people in different spheres of life – in science, political parties, in all sorts of associations, trade unions, etc.
The following list of meanings is not complete: the management of officials, the system of professional administration, organizational inefficiency, state administration, non-market organization, non-democratic organization.
However, the word “bureaucracy” implies the direction taken by the public administration in countries where all the affairs are concentrated in the hands of the central government power acting at directives (of the authorities) and via directives (to subordinates); bureaucracy is also understood as the class of people sharply isolated from the rest of society and composed of these agents of the central government power.
The word “bureaucracy” often brings to mind the pictures of the red-tape, poor performance, useless activities, many hours of waiting to receive ertificates and forms that have already been canceled, and attempts to fight with the municipality. All this really happens. However, the root of all these evils is not the bureaucracy as such, but deficiencies of the implementation of the rules of work and objectives of the organization, the usual difficulties associated with the size of the organization, the behavior of employees not complying with the rules and objectives of the organization. The concept of rational bureaucracy, originally formulated in the early 1900’s by the German sociologist Max Weber, at least ideally, is one of the most useful ideas in the history of mankind, a sort of the regulatory model, the ideal the organization should strive for.
The features of a rational bureaucracy are:
1. Specialization and division of labor. Every employee has certain responsibilities and scope of activities, which cannot duplicate the authority of the other members of the organization. A clear division of labor leads to the emergence of highly qualified specialists in each position
2. Vertical hierarchy. The structure of bureaucratic organization can be presented as a pyramid: the majority is in its base, while the minority is at the top. Each person included in this vertical hierarchy manages the people under, being at the same time subject to senior people, due to which the control over the activities of each element of the organization is implemented.
3. Distinct rules, existing of an interconnected system of generalized formal rules and standards ensuring the uniformity of the staff performance and coordination of various tasks. The activities of each member of the organization are regulated by the rules, the goal of which is streamlining the entire process of management. Ideally, these rules should bring the predictability of each employee and the entire organization. Although the rules can be modified, in general, they should be stable over time.
4. Relationship anonymity. In the ideal bureaucracy personal sympathy, feelings and preferences play no role. This principle is common for the relationships within the organization and its relations with external partners of the organization. The condition of the ideal bureaucracy is also a necessity to recruit new employees basing on their correspondence to certain objective criteria, regardless of personal contacts and attachments.
Thus, the bureaucratic organizational structure is characterized by a high degree of division of labor, developed hierarchy of management, chain of orders, the numerous rules and standards of conduct of the personnel and the selection of employees by their business and professional qualities. Weber called this structure “rational”, since it is assumed that the decisions taken by the bureaucracy are objective in nature.
The rules and standard procedures are contributing to predictability and routinely of organizational activities, that is, to their stability. Specialization of production duties means that each employee has a clearly articulated goal. Hierarchy of power provides a real mechanism for influencing on staff and management, as well as for their control. Technical competence is the foundation on which the person is hired to work (instead of friendship, family ties and/or personal linking). Separation of the post itself from the personality of the employee means that the post is not the personal property, it cannot be received or inherited. Documentalization and protocolizationg of organizational processes and organizational activity contributes to the preservation of important data and ensures the permanency of the processes.
A distinctive feature is the existence of formal rules governing the activities of management personnel. These rules can be changed in accordance with the established procedures and by rationally established norms (laws, regulations, rules) so that the legitimacy of authority is expressed in the legality of general, specifically-designed, properly formulated and promulgated rules. It is assumed that one should obey the formal rules, rather than a person with authority. Moreover, the head is also subject to formal legal norms. The principle of personal loyalty playing central role in traditional and charismatic authority is replaced by the orientation at the impersonal order.
An important feature of bureaucratic management is that the head of the organization can always be sure that his orders would be transmitted through the channels of communication and executed in accordance with the existing formal rules. Bureaucratic organization has a strict discipline. It is the incorporation of specific knowledge and discipline that form the basis of bureaucratic administration.
Bureaucratic organizations that to a greater or lesser extent are approaching their pure type can be found in various spheres of modern life: in the government apparatus and political parties, universities and hospitals, the army and large capitalist enterprises. The bureaucracy is ubiquity because it is more effective than any other form of government.
All this makes the bureaucracy completely indispensable in modern society. Bureaucracy’s superiority over other forms of management is mainly due to the fact that it is a medium of specific knowledge needed for normal functioning of any large organization. Objectivity, detachment, and formalism are the characteristics of the bureaucracy inherent in its ideal type.

Works Cited:

Ginsberg, Benjamin, Lowi, Theodore J. and Margaret Weir. We the People: An Introduction to American Politics. 6th ed. W. W. Norton & Company, 2007.