Bureaucratic Aspects Research Articles

Assessing the Methodology for Finding a Methodology for Assessment

Roger Handberg is a Professor of Political Science and Associate Dean of Graduate Studies at the University of Central Florida. His primary areas of research are the judicial process and politics, notably the United States Supreme Court, public opinion and political socialization of adolescents, and the bureaucratic aspects of science policy. Author's address: Office of Graduate Studies, University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida 32816-0112, USA.

Foreign aid and conditions precedent: Political and bureaucratic dimensions

International donor agencies increasingly use their influence to press for major reforms in development policies and administrative practices in Third World countries. Reform recommendations are often conceptualized with little regard for the political and bureaucratic contexts in which they are to be adopted and pursued. Without greater concern for issues of political and bureaucratic feasibility, however, reform recommendations are likely to have only minimal impact. Policy space research and administrative systems research are promising approaches for acquiring and analyzing information about the political and bureaucratic aspects of government decision-making. Such analyses can improve the potential for reform recommendations to be adopted and pursued.

Bureaucracy, Size, and Staff Expectations for Client Independence in Halfway Houses

A sample of 23 halfway houses for alcoholics is studied to determine the relationship of organizational structure to staff members' normative expectations for residential clients to be independent and self-sufficient in their daily functioning. Organizational structure is studied in terms offour dimensions of bureaucrary (complexity, decentralization, impersonality of interpersonal relations, and technical qualifications of staff) and two dimensions of size (number of members and the staff/client ratio). The data analysis indicates that, under certain conditions, various aspects of bureaucracy (e.g., greater complexity, decentralization, and impersonality) are positively associated with (greater) staff expectations for client independence. Greater organizational size in terms of numbers of staff and residents is negatively associated with such expectations, while a higher staff/client ratio has a positive impact. The discussion focuses on the complex interrelationship of bureaucracy and size as these affect staff and client outcomes and on possible directions for future research.

Colonial Chiefs and the Making of Class: A Case Study From Teso, Eastern Uganda

Opening ParagraphThis is a study of Teso District, eastern Uganda, during a period of colonial administration from 1896 to 1927. A group of appointed chiefs was brought into being and maintained within a local political environment in which neither traditional rulers nor a principle of hereditary succession to political office were recognised. The growth of the bureaucratic and authoritarian aspects of client chiefship is traced, along with changes in the relations of the chiefs with the colonial regime and with the people they ruled. In time, their increasing powers of coercion and their accumulative control of patronage led to the emergence of a class interest among them. This became crystallised in the mid-1920s when, as a body, they maintained a conservative stance within a colonial administration geared to change.

Patterns of Alienation in Inner City Ghettos

Although high rates of alienation are known to exist in inner city ghettos, it is not known whether that alienation is directed toward society as a whole or if individuals make distinctions between different sectors of the social system. Relationships between the levels of alienation directed toward four aspects of society are analyzed to determine if they are the result of a single underlying response to society or if they are the product of separate orientations. The findings show that individuals in low-income areas develop a generalized response to the bureaucratic aspects of urban society. They do not view society in terms of its component subsystems but instead treat each sector as a part of the whole. However, the orientation of a person to his neighborhood is independent of his orientation toward other aspects of society.

Participation, Organization, and Social Cohesion

There is a demand for the extension of participation in organizational decision-making. If realized, this should strengthen the stability of a democratic society through providing more people with a meaningful experience of democratic processes. At the same time, however, organizations are continuing to become bigger and their control more centralized. This trend is illustrated for Britain. It leads to an increasing remoteness of decision making on policy issues away from employees and members of the public. The effects of bureaucratization, which accompanies growth, exacerbate the remoteness. So far as participation is concerned, a growing contradiction is therefore emerging between social ideology and social reality, and this is not being given adequate recognition. The likely result is a weakening commitment to collective social objectives and a declining perceived legitimacy of social institutions. It is concluded that a resolution of this problem would be assisted by recognizing how the economic advantages of large-scale organization have been exaggerated and how there are organizational design possibilities for avoiding the socially less desirable aspects of bureaucracy.

Religion et bureaucratie — Le problème de l'organisation religieuse

The author notes that despite the work of Troeltsch and Weber, later sociology did not provide substantial treatment of the organizational aspects of religious phenomena. This shortcoming both on the theoretical and empirical level can perhaps be explained by the fact that churches have a ten dency to conceal the problems of their organization behind a quasi-theology, and sociologists do not always avoid the images and interpretations that the churches provide of them selves.The author then cites three reasons which seem to militate in favor of a more thorough analysis of the organizational and bureaucratic aspects of the churches' activity. He also pro poses several ways of reflecting on the faithful's changing per ception of the Catholic Church as well as its democrati zation.

The psychiatric and bureaucratic aspects of war.

The psychiatric and bureaucratic aspects of war.