Roots of Bureaucracy

Abstract

We are witnessing an obvious tendency towards the increasing bureaucratization of contemporary societies regardless of their social and political structures. Theorists in the West assure us that the momentum of bureaucratization is such that we now live under a managerial system which has, somewhat imperceptibly, come to replace capitalism. On the other hand, we have the huge, stupendous growth of bureaucracy in the post-capitalist societies of the Soviet bloc and especially in the Soviet Union. We are justified in attempting to elaborate some theory of bureaucracy which would be more comprehensive and more satisfying than the fashionable and to a large degree meaningless cliche: "managerial society". It is not, however, easy to come to grips with the problem of bureaucracy; in essence this problem is as old as civilization, although the intensity with which it has appeared before men's eyes has varied greatly over the epochs.