Sociology / Unit 5 Soc 0643 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Bureaucracy
Captions available
The idea
Bureaucracy, as Weber described it, is organization by hierarchy, written rules, specialized division of labor, impersonality, and appointment on qualification.
In practice
A licensing office treats every applicant by the same published criteria, whoever they are.
Where people slip
Impersonality is the design goal, and it is what makes bureaucracies fair and frustrating at once.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Something wrong in this lesson? Flag it · Sources for Sociology