Student Question

In Weber's Characteristics of Modern Bureaucracy, how is bureaucracy impersonal? What are its pros and cons?

Quick answer:

In modern bureaucracy, impersonality is one of the main features. This means that all people are treated equally and fairly by the bureaucracy. In practice this is not true.

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Max Weber's Characteristics of Modern Bureaucracy argued that there were six main features of a bureaucracy: 1) specialization, 2) hierarchy, 3) rules and regulations, 4) technical competence, 5) impersonality, and 6) formal written communication.

The feature of impersonality means that bureaucracy sees everyone as the same. There is, in theory, no or little personal or familial relationship or friendship between members of a bureaucracy and those they serve or regulate.

The advantage of this is that, in theory, no one should have an advantage over another. Bureaucracy should not care about social position, wealth, race, color, gender, or religious faith. It should serve and regulate all equally.

In practice this is not often the case. In the US alone, there have been many notorious cases of bureaucratic discrimination. Social Security did not cover farm workers at first, who were mostly black or Latino. Farm Bureaus had an ugly history of racism against black and Native American farmers.

Bureaucracy also can be notoriously corrupt. Analysts describe what's called the Iron Triangle. Leaders rotate from agencies to lobbyists to elected office. Those being regulated, especially in business, often become heads of bureaucratic agencies. After leaving, they often become lobbyists, using their inside knowledge of the agency. Or they can be elected leaders, and those leaders can rotate back to business, or as lobbyists.

This corruption can then work against the needs of the public, and it is often perfectly legal. Cost overruns, using the penalties of bureaucracy to keep out smaller business competitors, and using public office to enrich private profit or channel wealth from the average person to the already wealthy, are not unusual.

In theory, impersonality should also prevent nepotism or any other kind of favoritism. In practice, as shown before, that can easily be undercut. Impersonality should also remove emotionalism from decision-making. But since one's fate can be decided by bureaucracy, one's wealth, job, health, or other vital matters, impersonality cannot remove human passion from what should be a dispassionate process.

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