Wilson and Weber: Bourgeois Critics in an Organized Age

Weber, Wilson, and Hegel: Theories of Modern Bureaucracy

“…In this context, Weber and wilson were lumped together with the intention of criticizing the classical doctrines of administration as clearly un‐American. It was stated that “[i]nsofar as Wilson subscribed to such doctrines, he stands with Weber in the anti‐democratic tradition of administrative thought” (Cuff 1978, 240). However, it is less clear how far Wilson actually subscribed to the classical doctrine concerning the strict separation of politics and administration.…”

“…The similarities between contemporaries Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924) and Max Weber (1864–1920) have been widely stressed in public administration research (Cuff 1978, 240; Diggins 1958, 578–80; Fry and Nigro 1996, 39–40; Jackson 1986, 149). These acknowledgments most often relate to Wilson's article “The Study of Administration” (1887), and Weber's ideal type of bureaucracy, which he described in Economy and Society , published in 1921.…”

Folkevalgt og politisk leder

“…For den amerikanske statsviteren (og etter hvert statsmannen) Wilson hadde interessen for den europeiske byråkratitradisjonen bakgrunn i et ønske om å reformere en lite utviklet amerikansk offentlig administrasjon (Cuff, 1978). Selv om han anerkjente behovet for å tilpasse ideene til amerikanske forhold, var inspirasjonen hentet fra Europa.…”

“…Samtidig hadde Weber et ambivalent og kritisk syn på det rasjonelle byråkratiets fremvekst og dets potensielt dehumaniserende effekt (Byrkjeflot, 2018;Fivelsdal, 1971). Han argumenterte derfor for et sterkt politisk lederskap som kunne begrense akkumulasjon av makt i byråkratiet og en utvikling i retning av et embetsmannsvelde (Cuff, 1978). For Weber handlet altså skillet mellom politikk og administrasjon i stor grad om å holde administrasjonen ute av politikken (Overeem, 2005).…”

Policy evaluation and democracy: Do they fit?

“…While Max Weber argued for a neutral administration implementing political will, Woodrow Wilson made the case for the opposite: it was not democratic politics that was threatened by an all too powerful bureaucracy, but a creative administration was threatened by corrupt politics (Sager and Rosser 2009). Cuff (1978: 241) states of Wilson: "Creation, not control was the central issue; private, not public power, the chief threat to liberty." Rosser and Mavrot (2016) show for the US and France how these normative and quite rigourous institutional ideas travelled in time and context.…”