Introducing Weber and the texts

Bureaucracy. What is it? Who is it for? How does it work and what are the limits of it? Join us for this episode as we explore Max Weber's ideal-type bureaucracy and attempt to make sense of its, sometimes peculiar, implications.

In order to do so we have read two Chapters from his magnum opus - Economy and Society. Chapter 3 on Three Forms of Legitimate Domination, where he outlines his view on bureaucracy for the first time; and Chapter 11 on Bureaucracy, where he goes into more detail on how bureaucracy ought to work, why it is superior to preceding forms of organization and what are the characteristics of it.