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The study of bureaucracy must include certain key questions: what are bureaucrats and bureaucracies; why do they exist and what are their functions; how do they behave; how much power do they possess; what is their impact on efficiency and production; and how do they affect society?
This book contains analyses of all these issues, done by a variety of economists of differing backgrounds, approaches and opinions, broadly categorized under the labels Neoclassical, Institutionalist, and Marxist, although there are overlaps and correspondences that cross ideological and/or paradigmal boundaries.
In this book the labels are employed as a guide to the reader with a preference for one approach over the others, and as an indication of how chapters in different sections are related in their approaches.
List of contents
1 The Study of Bureaucracy.- Defining Bureaucracy.- The History of Bureaucracy.- Methodologies/Paradigms.- Current Problems and the Extent of Bureaucracy.- I: The Nature of Bureaucracy.- 2 The Behavior of Corporate Bureaucrats.- 3 Bureaucracy and Class Marxism.- 4 The Emergence and Functions of Managerial and Clerical Personnel in Marx's Capital.- 5 An Institutionalist Theory of Bureaucracy: Organizations and Technology.- II: The Internal Functioning of Bureaucracy.- 6 A Model of Corporate Organizational Structure.- 7 Public Sector Bureaucracy: The Neoclassical Structure.- 8 Bureaucracy/Technocracy, Market Structure and Behavior: An Institutionalist's View.- III: Bureaucracy and Society.- 9 The Economic Functions of Clerical and Managerial Personnel: A Historical Perspective.- 10 Bureaucracy and Society: An Institutionalist Perspective.- 11 Communist Bureaucrats and the Transition to the Market Economy.- 12 Paradigms, Insights, and Problems.
Summary
The study of bureaucracy must include certain key questions: what are bureaucrats and bureaucracies; why do they exist and what are their functions; how do they behave; how much power do they possess; what is their impact on efficiency and production; and how do they affect society?
This book contains analyses of all these issues, done by a variety of economists of differing backgrounds, approaches and opinions, broadly categorized under the labels Neoclassical, Institutionalist, and Marxist, although there are overlaps and correspondences that cross ideological and/or paradigmal boundaries.
In this book the labels are employed as a guide to the reader with a preference for one approach over the others, and as an indication of how chapters in different sections are related in their approaches.
Report
`... this is really an interesting and worthwhile reading book ... and I can only recommend it to every reader who wants to know something about bureaucracy.'
Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics, 152:3 (1996)
