Max Weber’s model of pure (ideal) bureaucracy in the face of modern administrative challenges – crisis, stagnation or renascence?

Abstract

Background: There is no doubt that there has been the search for an optimal model of administrative organization and operation since it existed. The research subject is to find a model of administration so as to ensure the rational organization of the administrative apparatus and the efficient performance of the tasks assigned to it. The starting point for this model involves the German scholar Max Weberʼs concept of ideal (pure) bureaucracy.
Research purpose: The primary purpose of this study is to answer the questions of to what extent the model of pure (ideal) bureaucracy responds to the challenges of contemporary administration. Is it about speaking of crisis, stagnation, or perhaps a renaissance of the Weberian model of bureaucracy (administration) in the context of the challenges facing contemporary administration? In addition, what components should be added to this model today?
Methods: In the research the following were applied: methodology characteristic of the social sciences, particularly legal sciences, including the historical-legal method to search for the origins of the institutions analysed, the observation method, and the dogmatic method used to decode formalized rules of operation.
Conclusions: The carried-out analysis facilitates the conclusion that the Weberian model of ideal (pure) bureaucracy, supplemented with postulates of socialization, more flexible administrative operations, and extensive planning in the administrative process, can be the basis for the organization and operation of a rational, understanding administration. No crisis in the concept of hierarchical administration is observed, so long as it: is strictly subordinated to the law, uses formalized rules of operation, is based on professional personnel, and is equipped with material resources corresponding to the characteristics and scope of its tasks. However, at the same time it involves social processes and the motives behind the behaviour of individuals, social groups, participants in economic life, and their axiological and normative system determining social life.