Inefficient parliamentarianism does not justify praising bureaucracy
Evidence
Use of violence is most efficient and cost-effective when the means are subjected to solely instrumental-rational criteria, and thus dissociated from moral evaluation of the ends. As I pointed out in the first chapter, such dissociation is an operation all bureaucracies are good at. One may even say that it provides the essence of bureaucratic structure and process, and with it the secret of that tremendous growth of moblizing and co-ordinating potential, and of the rationality and efficiency of action, which modern civilization has achieved thanks to the development of bureaucratic administration. The dissociation is by and large and outcome of two parallel processes, which are both central to the bureaucratic model of action. The first is the meticulous functional division of labour (as additional to, and distinct in its consequences, from linear graduation of power and subordination); the second is the substitution of technical for a moral responsibility. — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 289 (
#expands, via linked claim)
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: Democratic centralism means adapting constantly to movement rather than hardening into bureaucracy; Expert bureaucracy came to control democratic regimes and parliaments; Bureaucracy’s essence is dissociating means from moral evaluation of ends — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 289 (+1 more)
Related
Broader Connections
- Bureaucracy’s essence is dissociating means from moral evaluation of ends
#expands(0.82) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 289 - Expert bureaucracy came to control democratic regimes and parliaments
#qualifies(0.80) - Democratic centralism means adapting constantly to movement rather than hardening into bureaucracy
#corroborates(0.75)