A Model of the Bureaucratic Culture
| DOI | 10.1111/j.1467-9248.1974.tb01471.x |
| Published date | 01 March 1974 |
| Date | 01 March 1974 |
| Author | Gordon Smith |
| Subject Matter | Article |
A
MODEL
OF
THE BUREAUCRATIC
CULTURE*
GORDON SMITH
London School
of
Economics
THAT
the European bureaucracies do have some common features and ex-
perience, sufficient to allow a measure of generalization, is widely accepted.
Research into individual public services, however, has been insufficiently balanced
by the testing of general models; a particular deficiency is evident in the compara-
tive treatment
of
the bureaucracy in politics. Indeed, a degree of resistance exists
against embarking on such enterprises. There is the feeling that the traditions
and complexities of any one service, with the weight of history and ‘national
character’ behind it, make comparisons necessarily forced. The logic of this
view leads to an inclination to treat even parts of the same service as unique,
ultimately to say that it
is
a combination of particular circumstances and indi-
vidual propensity which shapes the political role of the bureaucrat-a world of
multifarious microcosms.
Exaggerated as the standpoint may appear, any attempt at general model-
building has at least to go some way in allowing for situations in which extreme
‘individualization’ is a fact of bureaucratic life, whilst still retaining the essential
basis for cross-national study. The following analysis outlines the form of amodel
sufficiently flexible to accommodate a wide range of political intervention on the
part of the bureaucracy. Chiefly, the end-result is the formulation
of
a rational
and coherent typology of bureaucratic tendencies, of use in tracing the develop-
ment of public services as well as in direct comparison.
THE QUESTION
OF
ENVIRONMENT
A convenient point of entry is set by a discussion of the environment which
shapes a bureaucracy, for it highlights the major variables which have to be taken
into account. In this context, Professor Ridley has detailed some fourteen
important environmental influences and suggests that a conceptual framework
could be devised to give ‘a generalised model of influences on the bureaucratic
system’ with a series of ‘ideal-type environmental models’ as
a
final result.’
The global environment breaks into a broad external-internal dichotomy; thus
the public service is subject to the external influences as much as the rest of a
country’s population. The constitutional order, national history, the structure of
social power and the educational system, prevailing economic factors, all of
these-together with the impact of current politics-make up the outside en-
vironment. And in addition allowance has to be made for the relationship of the
societal political culture with the bureaucratic subculture.
*
This article is a revised version
of
a paper presented to the Comparative Administration
Workshop
of
the European Consortium
for
Political Research at Mannheim, April
1973.
F.
F.
Ridley,
Preliminary Proposal
for
an ECPR Workshop
on
Comparative Administration,
August
1972.
Political
Studam,
Vol.
XXII,
NO.
1
(31-433)
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