Hilbert1987

Hilbert1987
BibType	ARTICLE
Key	Hilbert1987
Author(s)	Richard A. Hilbert
Title	Bureaucracy as Belief, Rationalization as Repair: Max Weber in a Post-Functionalist Age
Editor(s)
Tag(s)	EMCA, Ethnomethodology, Max Weber, Bureaucracy
Publisher
Year	1987
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Journal	Sociological Theory
Volume	5
Number	1
Pages	70-86
URL	Link
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Abstract

Weber's discussion of bureaucracy is generally taken as descriptive of organized

structure within a rational-legal society. This is understandable; yet elsewhe
Weber's sociology he cautions against precisely this kind of analysis. His cou
against reification, his emphasis upon subjective ideas standing behind social ac
his characterization of "society" as subjective orientation to legitimacy, his disc
of organization and social relationships as probabilities of behavior in accordance
subjective belief in their existence, and his tendency to describe the wide range of 
views within the vocabularies of those who subscribe to them-all mitigate aga
viewing his description of bureaucratic standardization as Weber's own world 
much less as his sociology. Rather the discussion can be understood as a descript
bureaucracy from within the bureaucratic setting and as a set of ideas subjectively
to as a basis of legitimacy, ideas whose truth value are largely irrelevant for Web
analysis. This qualification of bureaucracy as a mentality supplements the more w
acknowledged ideal-type qualification and provides a basis for increased Web
insight. Such insight dovetails with post-functionalist sociological theory, explains
origins and consequences of functionalist theory, and provides new understandi
recent findings in empirically based research. Moreover, it helps to focus cu
research away from bureaucracy as an existent entity and toward a phenomenon W
identifies as the central process of Western civilization: the rationalization
(bureaucratization) of human behavior, a process both unfulfillable and unstoppable.

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