Weber’s work on bureaucracy was not translated into English and made generally available until
1946. Still, his influence was phenomenal. Usually credited with being the “father” of modern sociology,
Weber’s work emphasized a new methodological rigor that could advance the study of organizations.
Weber himself played a crucial role in helping to write a constitution for the Weimar Republic
in Germany just before his death in 1920. The experience of the ill-fated Weimar Republic, certainly
not attributable in any way to Weber, added perhaps another point of support to Woodrow Wilson’s
contention that it is harder to run a constitution than to frame one. Yet the clarity and descriptive
quality of Weber’s analysis of bureaucratic organizations provided both orthodox theorists and critics
with a reference point from which to debate both the good and bad effects of bureaucratic structures.