Anneke van Baalen, HIDDEN MASCULINITY, Max Weber's historical sociology of bureaucracy.
Amsterdam 1994. Chapter 2 The Weber's private, sex defined values.
39
'To take a stand, to be passionate - 'ira et studium' - is the politician's element, and above all the element of the
political l e a d e r.
'
25
The politician is a gladiator or a knight, striving for power as a means to an end or for its own
sake.
26
4. Leadership and entrepreneurship; Beamtenherrschaft as anti-political force
Weber's argument in PG and PV is based on his opinion that in Germany no real politicians
exist, since its politicians behave like officials. Therefore the bureaucracy rules: Germany
suffers from 'Beamtenherrschaft'; there are no leaders who are able to control the
bureaucracy; Weber therefore advocates the creation of leaders to check its power.
To support these statements he summarizes his historical argument on the development of
that bureaucracy in ES, emphasizing the parallel between public and private 'enterprises':
' The all-important economic fact: the "separation" of the worker from the material means of production,
destruction, administration, academic research, and finance in general is the common basis of the modern state,
in its political, cultural and military sphere, and of the private capitalist economy. In both cases the disposition
over these means is in the hands of that power whom the b u r e a u c r a t i c a p p a r a t u s (of judges, officials,
officers, supervisors, clerks and non-commissioned officers) directly obeys or to whom it is available in case of
need.
'
27
Yet Weber does not explain clearly why public bureaucracies in particular suffer so easily
from a lack of leadership, and why this absence led to such disastrous results in Germany;
he only mentions mistakes in foreign policy, which mostly have to do with pronouncements
of the monarch and his environment against which the government did not protest
28
. A
responsible leader should resign if he cannot bear the responsibility for the policy of the
monarch; if he does not, he is a 'miserable "Kleber"'.
29
Even when he is not dealing with German foreign politics Weber repeatedly states the need
for political leadership in the modern state, because there 'the actual ruler is necessarily and
unavoidably the bureaucracy, since power is exercised neither through parliamentary
speeches nor monarchical enunciations but through the routines of administration.'
30
Weber goes on to unfold his political program in a general statement on the political
limitations of the irresistibly advancing bureaucracy - which in case of a socialist revolution
25
FMW p. 95, GPS p. 512.
26
'He who is active in politics strives for power either as a means in serving other aims, ideal or egoistic, or as
"power for power's sake", that is, in order to enjoy the prestige-feeling that power gives.' FMW p. 78, GPS p. 495.
27
ES p. 1394, GPS p. 309/10; cf. FMW p. 81/2, GPS p. 497 ff.
28
ES p. 1431 ff., GPS p. 357; the title of this section, "Die Beamtenherrschaft in der auswärtigen Politik' is
translated by 'Bureaucracy and Foreign Policy', thereby losing Weber's differentiation between 'bureaucracy' and
'rule by officials'. Both words mean the same, but Weber wants to create charismatic leaders which break the rule
of the officials, without abolishing bureaucracy; see below.
29
'An official who receives a directive which he considers wrong can and is supposed to object to it. If his
superior insists on its execution, it is his duty and even his honor to carry it out as if it corresponded to his
innermost conviction, and to demonstrate in this fashion that his sense of duty stands above his personal
preference. It does not matter whether the imperative mandate originates from an "agency", a "corporate body" or
an "assembly". This is the ethos of o f f i c e. A political leader acting in this way would deserve contempt.' ES p.
1404, GPS p. 323.
30
ES p. 1393, GPS p. 308.
 |
 |
 |