RE: RE: Bureaucracy

["Vikash Yadav" <vikash1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

1. Why is Weber constantly contrasted to Marx?  The whole discussion
of bureaucracy in Weber is an extension of Marx to the degree that the
evolution of bureaucracy reflects a gradual transfer of the "means of
administration" from the individual to the state.  Much of Weber's
writing should be seen as a response and an extension of the
reductionist aspects of Marx.

2. Weber was not "pro-bureaucracy" as Jim states.  This is a poor
reading of Weber.  After all, Weber is the man who cites Goethe at the
end of the Iron Cage passage in Protestant Ethic to the effect,
"Specialists without spirit, sensualists without heart; this nullity
imagines that it has attained a level of civilization never before
achieved."  Was Weber impressed by bureaucratic and hierocratic forms
of social organization?  Yes.  Was Weber "pro-bureaucracy"?  Hardly -
he was horrified by all forms of social (and economic) organization
that were dehumanizing.

Vikash Yadav