It would be much too facile and partly
eroneous to attribute such resistance by
bureaucrats simply to vested interests. Vested
interests oppose any new order which either
eliminates or at least makes uncertain their
differential advantage deriving from the
current arrangements. This is undoubtedly
involved in part in bureaucratic resistance
to change but another process is perhaps
more significant. As we have seen, bureaucratic
officials aflectively identify themselves
with their way of life. They have a pride of
craft which leads them to resist change in
established routines; at least, those changes
which are felt tobe imposed by others. This
nonlogical pride of craft is a familiar pattern
found even, to judge from Sutherland's
Professional Thief, among pickpockets who,
despite the risk, delight in mastering the
prestige-bearing feat of "beating a left breech"
(picking the left front trousers pocket).
In a stimulating paper, Hughes has applied
the concepts of "secular" and "sacred" to
Article 12 Bureaucratic Structure and personality 105
various typeS of division of labor; ..the
sacredness" of caste and Stiinde prerogatives
contrasts sharply with the increasing
secularism of occupational differentiation in
our society.t8 However, as our discussion suggests,
there may ensue, in particular vocations
and in particular types of organization,
the process of sanctification (viewed as the
counterpart of the process of secularization).