CHAPTER X I

BUREAUCRACY

t . Characteristics of Modern BureaucracyModern officialdom functions in the following manner:

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I. There is the principle of official jurisdicional meas, which aregenerally ordered by rules, that is, by laws or administrative regulations.This means:

( r ) The regular activities required for the purposes of the bureau-cratically governed strucrure are assigned as official duties.

(z) The authority to give the commands required for the dischargeof these duties is distributed in a stable way and is strictly delimited byrules concerning the coercive means, physical, sacerdotal, or otherwise,which may be placed at the disposal of officials.

(a) Methodical provision is made for the regular and continuousfulfillment of these duties and for the exercise of the correspondingrights; only persons who qualify under general rules are

"*ployld.In the sphere of the state these three elements constitute a bureau-cratic agencT, in the sphere of the private economy they constitute abureaucratic enterprise. Bureaucracy, thus understood, is fully developedin political and ecclesiastical communities only in the modern state, andin the private economy only in the most advanced institutions of capital-ism. Permanent agencies, with fixed jurisdiction, are not the historicalrule but rather the exception. This is even true of large political struc-tures such as those of the ancient Orient, the Germanic and Mongolianempires of conquest, and of many feudal states. In all these cases, theruler executes the most important measures through personal trustees,table-companions, or court-servants. Their commissions and powers arenot precisely delimited and are temporarily called into being for eachcase.

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pean notion and, by way of contrast, is totally foreign to the Americanway.

IV. Office management, at least all specialized office management-and such management is distinctly n6ds11-u5ually presupposesthorough training in a field of specialization. This, too, holds increasinglyfor the modern executive and employee of a private enterprise, just as itdoes for the state officials.

V. When the office is fully developed, official activity demands thefull working capacity of the official, irrespective of the fact that thelength of his obligatory working hours in the bureau may be limited.In the normal case, this too is only the product of a long development,in the public as well as in the private office. Formerly the trormil stateof affairs was the reverse: Official business was discharged as a secondaryactivity.

VL The management of the office follows general rules, which aremore or less stable, more or less exhaustive, and which can be learned.Knowledge of these rules represents a special technical expertise whichthe officials possess. It involves jurisprudence, administritive or busi-ness management.

The reduction of modern office managemenr to rules is deeplyembedded in its very nature. The theory of modem public administra-tion, for instance, assumes that the authority to order certain matters bydecree-which has been legally granted to an agency-does not entitlethe_ agency to regulate the matter by individual commands given foreach case, but only to regulate the matter abstracdy. This itands inextreme contrast to the regulation of all relationships through individualprivileges and bestowals of favor, which, as we shall see, is absolutelydominant in patrimonialism, at least in so far as such relationships arlnot fixed by sacred tradition.

z. The Position of the OfficialWithin and Outside ofBureaucracy

All this results in the following for the internal and exrernal posi-tion of the official:

I. OFFICE HOLDING AS A VOCATION

That the office is a "vocation" (Beruf) finds expression, first, in therequirement of a prescribed course of training, which demands theentire working capacity for a long period of dme, and in generally

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The Position of the Offtcial 959prescribed special examinations as prerequisites of employment. Further-more, it finds expression in that the position of the official is in thenature of a "duty" (Pflicht). This determines the character of his rela-tions in the following manner: Legally and actually, office holding isnot considered ownership of a source of income, to be exploited forrents or emoluments in exchange for the rendering of certain services,as was normally the case during the Middle Ages and frequendy upto the threshold of recent times, nor is office holding considered acommon exchange of services, as in the case of free employrnent con-tracts. Rather, entrance into an office, including one in the privateeconomy, is considered an acceptance of a specific duty of fealty to thepurpose of the office (Amtstreue) in return for the grant of a secureexistence. It is decisive for the modern lovaltv to an office that, in thepure type, it does not establish a relationrhip to a person, like thevassal's or disciple's faith under feudal or patrimonial authorit/, butrather is devoted to impersonal and functional purposes. These pur-poses, of course, frequently gain an ideological halo from culturalvalues, such as state, church, community, party or enterprise, whichappear as a surrogates for a this-worldly or other-worldly personal mas-ter and which are embodied by a given group.

The political official-at least in the fully developed modern state-is not considered the personal servant of a ruler. Likewise, the bishop,the priest and the preacher are in fact no longer, as in early Christiantimes, carriers of a purely personal charisma, which offers other-worldlysacred values under the personal mandate of a master, and in principleresponsible only to him, to everybody who appears worthy of them andasks for them. In spite of the partial survival of the old theory, theyhave become officials in the service of a functional purpose, a purposewhich in the present-day "church" appears at once impersonalized andideologically sanctifi ed.

II. THE SOCIAL POSITION OF THE OFFICIAL

A. socrAl ESTEEM AND sTATUS coNVENTroN. Whether he is in aprivate office or a public bureau, the modern official, too, always strivesfor and usually attains a distinctly elevated social esteeru vis-d-vis thegoverned. His social position is protected by prescription about rankorder and, for the political official, by special prohibitions of the crimi-nal code against "insults to the office" and "contempt" of state andchurch authorities.

The social position of the official is normally highest where, as inold civilized countries, the following conditions prevail: a strong de-

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