From Max Weber by Weber Max; Gerth H. H. ; Mills Wright

Author:Weber, Max; Gerth, H. H. ; Mills, Wright
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 1111791
Publisher: Taylor and Francis

14: THE ‘RATIONALIZATION’ OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

We cannot here analyze the far-reaching and general cultural effects that the advance of the rational bureaucratic structure of domination, as such, develops quite independently of the areas in which it takes hold. Naturally, bureaucracy promotes a ‘rationalist’ way of life, but the concept of rationalism allows for widely differing contents. Quite generally, one can only say that the bureaucratization of all domination very strongly furthers the development of ‘rational matter-of-factness’ and the personality type of the professional expert. This has far-reaching ramifications, but only one important element of the process can be briefly indicated here: its effect upon the nature of training and education.

Educational institutions on the European continent, especially the institutions of higher learning—the universities, as well as technical academies, business colleges, gymnasiums, and other middle schools— are dominated and influenced by the need for the kind of ‘education’ that produces a system of special examinations and the trained expertness that is increasingly indispensable for modern bureaucracy.

The ‘special examination,’ in the present sense, was and is found also outside of bureaucratic structures proper; thus, today it is found in the ‘free’ professions of medicine and law and in the guild-organized trades. Expert examinations are neither indispensable to nor concomitant phenomena of bureaucratization. The French, English, and American bureaucracies have for a long time foregone such examinations entirely or to a large extent, for training and service in party organizations have made up for them.

‘Democracy’ also takes an ambivalent stand in the face of specialized examinations, as it does in the face of all the phenomena of bureaucracy —although democracy itself promotes these developments. Special examinations, on the one hand, mean or appear to mean a ‘selection’ of those who qualify from all social strata rather than a rule by notables. On the other hand, democracy fears that a merit system and educational certificates will result in a privileged ‘caste.’ Hence, democracy fights against the special-examination system.

The special examination is found even in pre-bureaucratic or semibureaucratic epochs. Indeed, the regular and earliest locus of special examinations is among prebendally organized dominions. Expectancies of prebends, first of church prebends—as in the Islamite Orient and in the Occidental Middle Ages—then, as was especially the case in China, secular prebends, are the typical prizes for which people study and are examined. These examinations, however, have in truth only a partially specialized and expert character.

The modern development of full bureaucratization brings the system of rational, specialized, and expert examinations irresistibly to the fore. The civil-service reform gradually imports expert training and specialized examinations into the United States. In all other countries this system also advances, stemming from its main breeding place, Germany. The increasing bureaucratization of administration enhances the importance of the specialized examination in England. In China, the attempt to replace the semi-patrimonial and ancient bureaucracy by a modern bureaucracy brought the expert examination; it took the place of a former and quite differently structured system of examinations. The bureaucratization of capitalism, with its demand for expertly trained technicians, clerks, et cetera, carries such examinations all over the world.

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