Page 24 - Contemporary Political Sociology Globalization Politics and Power

10 Changing Definitions of Politics and Power

Weber describes the state as gaining its power in modernity by concen-
trating the means of administration in the hands of an absolute monarch,
expropriating the “ ownership of the means of administration, ” in a way
similar to that described by Marx in the case of workers who are deprived
of control of the means of production (Weber, 1948b : 812). Offi cials in
modern, rational bureaucracies have little or no control over what they
do since the rules and procedures of bureaucracies take on a life of their
own, restricting the activities and decisions of those who work in them

to the functions of the offi ces they fill. In this way, bureaucracy forms a
“ steel - hard housing ” within which most individuals in modern societies
must live and work, since its effects are felt not only by those who work
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in administration, but also by those who are administered. According to
Weber, this form of life is the price that must be paid for living in a highly
complex and technically advanced society. Bureaucratic administration is
the only rational way of managing economically and politically differenti-
ated societies since economic enterprises need predictability above all;
without it, they cannot calculate in order to ensure profi tability. This is
why the socialist dream that the state will wither away once the dominant
class has been deprived of its power in the ownership of the means of
production is more like a nightmare for Weber: to abolish private prop-
erty would increase the power of the state since there would be no coun-
tervailing power of the market, and management of the economy would
come entirely under the control of bureaucrats (Held, 1987 : 1504).
Although Weber saw himself as a neutral social scientist, his political
sociology has a normative dimension. He is concerned to analyze repre-
sentative democracy as it actually works in modern societies, arguing that
the ideal of participatory democracy cannot be practiced in large - scale,
complex societies. On the other hand, however, he is also concerned that
democracy may be the only way in which the “ steel - hard housing ” of
modern bureaucratic power can be broken. Clearly, the elite administra-
tion that must run modern societies cannot be directly accountable to the
masses; this would make for inefficiency and unpredictability, especially

given what Weber sees as the irrationality and ignorance of the general
population. Democracy is important, nevertheless, primarily because elec-
tions provide testing grounds for charismatic leaders who are then given
the mandate of the people and who can establish the goals the bureaucrats
are to realize. Such leaders offer the only chance of overriding the bureau-
cratic machinery (Giddens, 1972 : 389). More conventionally, democracy
is important because, even if it only offers the opportunity to dismiss the
ineffective from office, it thereby provides a certain degree of protection

for the people (Held, 1987 : 15460). In Weber ’ s view, democracy is less