Re: [Marxism] what does "bureaucracy" mean?

[DCQ <deeseekyou@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I don't know about "Marxist" definition, but there are several flavors
of the word. The most common sense of the word is the one which gives
the word its distastefulness: the rule of unelected officials,
particularly those who care more for procedure than result.

This is important, and goes to the heart of what it means to be in
favor of human liberation. Class societies have always granted power to
certain unelected officials--whether appointed by kings or emperors or
by presidents or governors or by CEOs and managers--who have real power
over the lives and fortunes of others. Their only claim to authority is
through the good graces of those who appointed them; therefore, the
natural tendency is to stick to the letter of what they are appointed
to do. They should not exceed their authority, nor should they fail to
do their job. Therefore the magic formulas must be observed before the
bureaucrat feels free to act (magic formulas=filling out forms, having
certain documents, saying the right things (ideologies, prayers, etc.),
having a certain party membership, knowing the right people, etc...).

This is *not* a function of an organization or society being large or
complex; if this were true then socialism would be
impossible--period--since what we are after is the unification of the
whole human race into one self-organized global society. Bureaucracy is
the soulless rule of soulless people over a powerless population.

Liberal/reformist organizations are also often accused of being
"bureaucratic"--and often rightly so. This is not because they have
been granted a share of state power. Nor is it because all large,
complex organizations need bureaucracy (they need
"organization"--yes--but that is another animal with different benefits
and drawbacks). They can be called bureaucratic for, it seems to me,
two reasons: 1) They are sluggish to respond to the needs/desires of
their memberships, and will only do so after time-consuming,
demobilizing, disempowering rituals are observed; and 2) they fetishize
the minutiae of how those in power operate, and hope to learn the rules
so well that they will someday be successful. Again, neither of these
cases are the necessary result of size or complexity. Case 1 develops
out of an unwillingness to confront those in power (the state or the
corporations). And case 2 develops from the aura of "professionalism"
that labor/liberal/party leaders ("fulltimers") attempt to foster to
present their own indispensability to their memberships. In either
case, the cause is class society, and not some ahistorical tendency in
human nature to value rules and procedures over the lives of real
people.

In the immediate aftermath of a social revolution, we can be relatively
sure that some positions will be appointed, simply by force of habit.
But as issues arise, people will (it would be hoped) take it upon
themselves to say "Hey, we don't need to take this. Let's make this
position electable." And thus democracy flowers and bureaucracy wilts.
(E.g., "Nobody elects the guy who dispatches repair technicians--that's
just a technical-organizational job; we'll give it to Sheila." Sheila
does a brilliant job, and nobody complains. But then Sheila decides she
wants to be a poet, quits, and her assistant Fred is appointed to take
her place. However, Fred is horrible at the job. The technicians and
the people depending on the technicians get together and decide to
change things--because that is the type of initiative and subjectivity
that socialism is supposed to unleash.)

Conversely, if things go poorly for the revolution, these appointed
position would tend to spread ("we don't have time to worry about
that...the counter-revolutionary armies are massing 50 miles away and
we need [fill in the blank) done now!"], fostering a sense of
disempowerment among the people.

Does that help?

-DCQ

On Sep 26, 2005, at 1:17 AM, Josh Saxe wrote:

> Can anyone give me a good Marxist definition [of bureaucracy]?


________________________________________________
YOU MUST clip all extraneous text before replying to a message.
Send list submissions to: Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism