Public Administration Unit-17 Karl Marx

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UNIT 17.0 Objectives Introduction 17.2 17.4 Rise of Bureaucracy Bureaucra cy Role of Bureaucracy Bureaucratic Power and Military Dictatorship 17.5 Characteristics of Bureaucracy 17.3 17.5.1 Division of Labour '17.5.2 Hierarchy 17.5.3 Training Rules Alienation Sharpening of Conflict between between Capitalists and Workers 17.12 Administration Socialist Society Critical Critic al Appraisal Appraisal . Let Us Sum Up Key Words Some Useful Books Answers to to Check Your Your Progress Exercises Exercises After through this Unit you should be able to: 17.7 17.8 17.9 17.9 17.10 17.1 1 the significance signifi cance of views on bureaucracy explain expl ain the characteri charact eristi stics cs of bureaucracy identified by by Karl Marx, and discuss the criticism of 17.1 views on bureaucracy. .INTRODUCTION Karl Marx was a great social revolutionary as as a social scientist. His influence continues to be felt not only in sciences, philosophy and literature, but also through revolutions in countries like Russia, China and Vietnam. His thought is being interpreted inte rpreted ted in in different diffe rent ways by several schools, schoo ls, such as the Frankfurt the and re-interpre existentialists, the structuralists, Russian communists. Chinese communists, Trotskyists. and so s o on. The combination of revolutionary thought and work is of special significance for underdeveloped countries where revolutionary movements are growing. Marx , in Germany in 181.8. He did his Greek philosophy. His views prevented his appointment as a university and led to his exile from fr om country after af ter country. He wrote volumin voluminously ously but always remained poor, which resulted in much suffering for his He participated in the revolutionary movement which led to the short -lived Paris Pa ris Commune Commune in 1870. He died in leaving most of his'works his'wor ks unfinished. unfinished. was ideas on are spread over his numerous works. He has dealt with the rise of bureaucracy, its role in developed and developing countries, its dysfunctions, its destruction destruct ion in the th e course cour se of of the socialist soc ialist revolution, and and its supersession supersession in the new new non-exploitative exploit ative society. In thi s Unit, we shall shall describe views on and examine exam ine the criticism critici sm on his his views. , . 17.2 RISE BUREAUCRACY points that, with the nation state Europe around the sixteenth sixteen th century. century . The concentra conc entration tion of wealth and power in the hands of merchant merc hant capitalist capit alistss and an d absolute absolu te monarchs monarch s led to the need of of an instrument for the management of wealth and an d the of power. Th is instrument was the bureaucracy. With its help capitalists competed against other capitalists and monarch curbed feudal lords. medieval trade was is. within with in .the .the v illage ill age or between nearby villages. villages . The invention of steamships steamshi ps made it possible to trade tr ade with distant places. places. The The merchant adventurers, who had to go to distant places, however, insecure. Their security could be ensured only through a state which exercised sway over a large area. This need of far-flung trade gave rise to the nation state. It is notable that in earlier times there were either city states or empires. Nation states arose for the the first time around around thesixteenth century. However However the king could not administer such a large area except except through a large number of officials. offic ials. controlled controll ed the centre. These officials constitute the bureaucracy. Hence the is associate d with capitalism and the the nation state. This also suggests that if'capitalism and the nation state could be superseded, bureaucracy would also become obsolete. 17.3 ROLE OF BUREAUCRACY Feudalism Feudalism continued in part for about two two centuries even after coming into being of the nation state. In Prance, the Revolution of 1789 did away with some of the relics of feudalism; however, it was only the Revolution of 1830 that led to the transfer of from from the landlords t o the capitalists. Similar changes tobk tobk place in in other countries countries.'.' of feudalism and of arid more people were now taking up jobs in factories owned by capitalists. Since handicrafts could not compete with with industry, artisans like weavers, shoemakers, shoem akers, blacksmiths, blacksmiths, carpenters, and so on, were thrown out of employment, and had to seek jobs in industry. introduction of newer and and newer technology always maintained some Due to 'unemployment and poverty, workers in a capitalist society can be forced to back -breaking labour, for long hours, at low wages. Marx has described in detail how even were exploited in the factor fac tories ies of of England in the nineteenth century. While working conditions in Western improved due to the wealth obtained from and also due to unionisation unio nisation of labour, capitalist exploitation exploitation can now be seen in underdeveloped underdeveloped countries like India. According to Marx, all value is produced, by human labour. receive only a of the t he value valu e produced produce d by by them in the form wages. The portion, which is retained by the constitutes their exploitation. Hence which can be measured in in this way, is always present in capitalist capit alist relations relat ions of production, The huge profits of capitalists are derived from the exploitation a number of workers. A capitalist cannot manage so s o many workers workers all alone. He has to employ employ for this purpose. purpo se. 'These managers, mana gers, and officials officia ls associated assoc iated with with them, constitute bureaucracy. bureaucracy. Hence, according accordin g Marx, bureauc bu reaucracy racy consists of officials officials who the workers on on behalf behal f of the owners own ers or rulers. rule rs. Its function is to get work out of the the exploitative conditions of capitalism. governmental bureaucracy has a,similar function in regard to workers by the government. are large larg e numbe n umber* r* of workers worker s in government govern ment owned railways, power stations, other othe r undertakings underta kings.. Large number number of workers are employed by the government governme nt in non-industrial occupations also, such as postmen, nurses, teachers, . 'mechanics, and so on. of the workers have a higher status than others; thus engineers, doctors, architects and scientists are also involved in productive productive activity, and hence are workers with a high status. All these workers have to be kept under For . . control is exercised by the bureaucracy. Bureaucracy Bureaucracy and managers not perform the productive activity themselves, but Karl Marx Your Progress i) space below for your answers. your the Cnd the- unit. the causes for of ide ntifie fied d by Karl Marx. as- identi ... , 1 ...................................................................................................................................... 2 Explain the role What is the bureaucracy.. of bureaucratic power? t 17.5 CHARACTERISTICS OF BUREAUCRACY We shall briefly briefly discuss disc uss some of the features that characterise the bureaucracy bureaucracy as described described by Karl Marx. 17.5.1 Division of Labour agrees that the t he division of labour makes the organisation of of capitalist society highly highly productive. produ ctive. However, he points point s our that the basic division divis ion of of labour, labo ur, which which we we tend to overlook, is intellectual and activity . While the workers perform the activity, the capitali cap italists sts and bureaucrats bureaucrats only intellectual activity. all the hard work falls on the workers in the name of the th e division of of labour. the gains of of higher productivity go g o mostly to the capitalists, capit alists, who share these to some extent With the bureaucracy, as indicat in dicated ed bureaucrac burea ucracy's y's high high salaries. salarie s. So far fa r the the workers are concerned, productivity tends to higher unemployment among them, as it  Marx , " , -.- I , " Bureaucracy happen happenss when when high technology is introduced. Increased unemployment tends tend s to lower l ower wages also. Hence. increased to heightened division of labour may lead to little gain for the workers. 17.5.2 Hierarchy He says that while Marx notes that hierarchy is one of the characteristics of maintains that hierarchy prevents "arbitrary domination" by bureaucrats, bureaucrat s, the fact is the very opposite. In his view, it leads to inevitable" sins. Thus if an official officia l does some wrong to citizen cit izens, s, the the tendency of his superiors superior s is to protect him. However, if an official stands up against a wrong wrong being being committed by by his superiors, supe riors, he gets punished. " Marx makes another interesting criticism of -hierarchy. He says, "The top entrusts the understanding of detail to the lower levels, while. the lower levels credit the top with understanding of the general, and so s o all are mutuall m utually y deceived deceived . the compl aint of of top administrators often is that a good policy has been badly implemented; on the other hand, officials at lower levels often complain about of the policy itself. itself . This is what has happened in in regard regar d to land refor r eforms ms in in India: the policy makers and tthos hosee responsible for implementation have been each other for their failure. " , Training Marx Marx notes that that it is said, for example by that liberal education civil 'servants. He, however, maintains that the mechanical mechanical character of his work and the compulsions compulsi ons of office lead to the civil servant. , Marx is also critical of the recruitment members of the bureaucracy through competitive examinations. He says that members of a bureaucracy need statesmanship which cannot be tested through an examination: "One does not hear that the Greek or statesmen passed examinations". class analysis woul would d indicate that the main main function of of examinations is to ensure that only only persons of of the th e upper class cla ss who can afford the costly higher educat edu cation ion are able to enter bureaucracy. Apart Apart from being costly, costl y, higher education inculcate's values value s and attitudes which are ar e supportive sup portive of Higher education tends to create social distance distanc e between the the rich and the poor: highly educated generally think that they are a class apart from the uneducated poor. Hence if a highly educated person is appointed as a manager, the exploitation of of workers does not hurt him. 17.5.4 Rules points out that bureaucratic minds are so bound in subordination and passive obedience that they come to think that adherence to rules is an end in itself, and not merely a means to an end. They come ,to attach more importance to rules than to human beings: "Actual devoid  just as actual actual life seems dead dead . " 1 The concept of of alienation is one of important contributions to to social science, scienc e, and particularly to to administrative administ rative theory. It refers to t o the consequences consequen ces of of explo ex ploita itatio tion n for fo r man. Since exploitation is inherent in of large-scale organisations in capitalist society, they they suffer from in an acute Alienation has four main aspects: I,' loss of of freedom, freedom , loss of creati cre ativit vity, y, loss of humanity, hum anity, and and loss of morality'. l Freedom According to Marx, wherever there is exploitation, the as the . suffer from alienation. alienat ion. Hence all the members of the organisation organisati on suffer from alienatio ali enation. n. workers are ar e under compulsion compuls ion to take up jobs: jobs: they they can no n o longer long er function funct ion as independent artisans. Once they have accepted the jobs, they are the authoritarian command of the management. mana gement. They are controlled and with punishment. The also suffer from alienation because they are themselves employees. employees. The capitalist also loses his freedom. Marx Marx points out that the capitalist capit alist is not free to eat, drink, buy books, or to go to the theatre th eatre dance hall, or even to think, love, theorise, sing, etc., as he wishes. wishes. He is constrained by the nature of his business. To increase his capital he must save; he cannot spend as he likes. . Loss of , Marx of Creativity characterist charac terist ics of bureaucracy bureauc racy interfere with the creativity of workers. workers. Such is sometimes called a dysfunction. Thus division of labour interferes with creativity. Because Because of division of worker produces the whole product. Hence the worker has lost the creative satisfaction of an artisan or an artist. Hierarchy has the result worker can say that he independently produced The worker himself becomes a mere tool. Rules ensure that workers are all the time under detailed control. The administrator also loses his creativity. creati vity. Thus the administrator administ rator in in public administration is anonymous. Even policy making has to be done jointly; even if an administrator is responsible for drawing up a certain policy, he cannot take credit for it. The capitalist loses loses creativity because of the big risks involved in a large-scale organisation. Loss of Humanity Humanit y In modem large-scale tend to function like machines, thereby their humanity. Due to division of labour most workers have no part in deciding the objectives, or how these are to be fulfilled. The office is also structured like a big machine. The workers, whether they are in a factory or an office, function like automata. They have to repeatedly, and monotonously, perform a job without taking into account its significance, or lack of it, for human beings. The managers are in a similar situation too; for, they are also part of a machine-like structure. The kapitalist, or political political ruler, finds himself himself manipulat mani pulated ed by impersonal imperson al market or political forces, and a nd responds to these without fully taking into account human values. Loss of Morality to Marx, the loss of freedom, creativity arid humanity necessarily leads to loss of morality. is immoral to take away the freedom of workers and convert them into near animals. Loss of creativity also leads to immorality: if engineers or doctors are more interested in than in building safe bridges or in curing patients, they become become immoral. Loss of humanity, humanit y, in the sense se nse of of being insensitive to the the suffering of others, is certainly immoral. Capitalism is based upon competition between nation states, business firms, political parties, and so on. Since competition endangers survival, resort to all means, including ones, is often made for ensuring in capitalist society. Hence, according to is inherent in capitalism. SHARPENING OF CONFLICT BETWEEN CAPITALISTS AND WORKERS According to Marx the class struggle has been going on between between the exploiting and exploited classes human human history. history. In capitalist society interests of the capitalist class and the working working class conflict with with each other, and so their struggle goes on. Marx Marx maintains that t hat while w hile on the one hand, bureaucratisation helps the the development of capitalism, capit alism, on on the t he other hand it also prepares for the latter's latte r's overthrow. The The formation of large-scale organisations brings workers together. together. in industrial. locations helps them to organise. The development of the means of transport and communication helps them to expand their organisation. Their unions thus become countrywide and powerful. After struggling through and strikes, their struggle begins to bring fruit such as higher wages and the shortening of the working day,.. Finally, the organised strength strengt h of of the workers is able to overthrow overth row the exploitative capitalist system through through a revolution. With capitalism goes bureaucracy bureaucracy also, the function of of bureauc b ureaucracy, racy, namely controlling control ling workers, wor kers, no longer needs to performed. Capitalism, which really was the dictatorship of the capitalist class, is now replaced by the dictatorship of the proletariat. The dictatorship dic tatorship of of the is a short-lived period for the ushering in of the new society. The new is classless, and and so has no need for the state, since the function the state is the maintenance of the domination of one class over another. Hence the state withers away. " " , , Bureaucracy 17.7 ADMINISTRATION IN SOCIALIST Bureaucracy 17.7 ADMINISTRATION IN SOCIALIST to describe in detail the nature of the future socialist society, since Marx did not would be utopian: It will be what we make it to be. Instead of speculating, Marx examined the nature of the th e Paris Commune which whi ch had been. set up after aft er a revolution. The administration of the Paris Commune can give some idea of the possible nature of the adniinistration in the socialist society of the future, as follows: There would be , of the producers ; in other words the new society " would be wholly democratic. The standing army would be disbanded; the people themselves would take to arms when need arose. There would be communes at rural, district and national levels. The central government would have only a few important functions: there would be decentralisation. The system of election would be indirect and based upon universal suffrage; all the elected members would be subject to recall at any time. The commune would be both, an executive and legislative body. The police police would be stripp ed of its attributes attributes and turned in to and revocable agents of the commune.. public would be done at workmen's wages. Education would be free and accessible to all. Judges would would be elected, elected, responsible and revocable, revocable, s o as to be free fro m control by the government. CRITICAL Marx has been criticised by various writers on a number of grounds. We shall Consider some of the criticisms. It has been said that hope of ending class domination is unrealistic unrealistic since sinc e domination has always been there. In response to this criticism, however, it can be said that what has not happened in the past can happen in future. Human beings are free to make their own future, despite constraints. Another criticism is that hope that large-scale organisations like the nation state can be done away with is unjustified. And if large-scale organisations are there, bureaucracy will also be there. However, it is notable that the nation state arose only with capitalism. Capitalism makes for largeness of organisations because of competition. In a society where competition is no longer so important, largeness may be avoided. New technology technology also seems lo be leading in same direction. Thus the use of solar, water and power is likely to reduce the need need for large power power grids. Electronics also makes for smaller machines. Smaller machines make for smaller organisations. is sometimes sometimes said that equality can never be achieved in practice, since human beings are born unequal. However, the fact is that every human being has some creative potential. The reason why only some people seem to be capable of big achievement is that many people get no opportunity opportunity for the development of their potential. It It , 28 is held that competition and inequality of rewards are necessary for providing The fact,. is that the greatest achievers achievers like grea gr eatt art ist s and scientists scientists of the past never competed, except with themselves. a normal person motivation is mostly due to the creative urge; competition makes for unnecessary tension diseases. Aggression, it is sometimes Is natural to human hence wars and standing armies cannot  be abolished. However, the view that aggression is natural to human beings , . considered to be obsolete. obsolete . Now it is considered consider ed to be associated with abnormal ity, if it is in an acute form. Marx is sometimes for supporting dictatorship. We have above, however, Marx stood for of the workers. The short-lived dictatorship of the proletariat prolet ariat is is needed only to deal with the prevailing prevai ling dictatorship dictat orship of of the th e capitalist capit alist . Check i) Use the space below for your answers. Check your answers with the answer given at the end of the unit. What, according to Marx, are the characteristics of bureaucracy? Note: 2 Describe the facets face ts of alienation alienat ion of bureaucr b ureaucracy acy as identified ident ified by by Karl Marx. 3 Explain the features of administration administr ation of Paris .......................................................................................... ............................................. ......................................................................................... ............................................ ....................................................................................................................................... What are the major criticisms on of bureaucracy? ............................. ............................................ .............................. ............................. ............................. .............................. .............................. ............................. .................. ...................................................................................................................................... . I 17.9 LET US SUM UP . I 17.9 LET US SUM UP In this Unit we have discussed about the views of Karl Marx on bureaucracy. a serious of Marx Marx Weber's ideal type of of bureaucracy. of bureaucracy bureaucracy and its characteristics characteri stics provides an alternative alterna tive perspect pers pective ive on the nature na ture of bureaucracy. 17.10 WORDS City State : A State consisting of a sovereign city city and its dependencies. depen dencies. Commune : An association whose members own everything in common co mmon,, includin incl uding g the product of of their thei r labour. Trotskyism : The Theory of Communism of Leon Russian and writer, in which which he called for immediate immedi ate worldwide revolution revoluti on by the proletariat. Utopia : Any real real or imaginary imaginary society, place, state etc., considered considered to be perfect or ideal. ideal. - 17.11 SOME BOOKS Albrow; Martin, 1970. Macmillan: London. 2 Mohit, 1987. The World Press: Calcutta. 3 Prasad Ravindra, D., et al., (eds), 1989.  Administrative Thinkers; Sterling Publishers: New Delhi. K., 1982, Marxist Interpretation; 4  Interpr etation; Change, Vol. 9, No. 2 Jan-June, pp. 175 -203. 1 17.12 ANSWERS TO EXERCISES Check Your Progress 1 1 See 17.3. 2 See 17.4. 3 See Check Your Progress 2 . 1 See 17.5. 17.5.5. 2 See 3 See 17.7. YOUR PROGRESS ..