Contemporary thinking along these lines begins with the work of the brilliant German sociologist
Max Weber (1864–1920). His analysis of bureaucracy, first published in 1922 after his death, is still the
main point of departure for all further analyses on the subject. Drawing on studies of ancient bureaucracies
in Egypt, Rome, China, and the Byzantine Empire, as well as on the more modern ones emerging
in Europe during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Weber used an “ideal-type” approach
to extrapolate from the real world the central core of features characteristic of the most fully developed
bureaucratic form of organization. Weber’s “Bureaucracy,” reprinted here, is neither a description of
reality nor a statement of normative preference. It is merely an identification of the major variables
or features that characterize bureaucracies. The fact that such features might not be fully present in a given organization does not necessarily imply that the organization is nonbureaucratic. It may be an
immature rather than a fully developed bureaucracy
Contemporary thinking along these lines begins with the work of the brilliant German sociologistMax Weber (1864–1920). His analysis of bureaucracy, first published in 1922 after his death, is still themain point of departure for all further analyses on the subject. Drawing on studies of ancient bureaucraciesin Egypt, Rome, China, and the Byzantine Empire, as well as on the more modern ones emergingin Europe during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Weber used an “ideal-type” approachto extrapolate from the real world the central core of features characteristic of the most fully developedbureaucratic form of organization. Weber’s “Bureaucracy,” reprinted here, is neither a description ofreality nor a statement of normative preference. It is merely an identification of the major variablesor features that characterize bureaucracies. The fact that such features might not be fully present in a given organization does not necessarily imply that the organization is nonbureaucratic. It may be animmature rather than a fully developed bureaucracy
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