Political Theories of Modern Government (Routledge Revivals): Its Role and Reform by Peter Self

Author:Peter Self [Self, Peter]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History & Theory, National, Political Science, American Government, General
ISBN: 9781135156145
Google: iWaMAgAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 17577076
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2009-11-05T00:00:00+00:00

b) Organizational sociology

The evolution of pluralism into corporatism can be partly explained by organizational sociology. In government as well as in business, there has been a steady move towards larger organizations; for example, the experiments with ‘giant departments’ in UK, France, etc. As large organizations gobble up smaller ones, they become better able to stabilize their environment. The larger they get and the more they concert their policies, the more stabilized the total system becomes, at least in an organizational sense. The system will still be buffeted by external forces which will sometimes lead the members of interest groups (and government officials too) to repudiate the disciplines of concerted action.

Organizations, both private and public, also become increasingly bureaucratic and similar in their structures, methods of working and style of decision making. This convergence of style and attitudes between government departments and major interest groups is very apparent in Germany and was noted still earlier in respect of the UK (Nettl, 1965), although Nettl commented that it was the attitudes of civil servants which dominated the interaction, a point which has often been made about France. Leaders of government and industry have increasingly stressed the virtue of ‘social responsibility’ and of a concerted approach towards difficult economic problems. Naturally the close involvement of interest group leaders in government tends to distance them from their members, a process which resembles the distancing of ministers from their parliamentary followers by pressures within their departments.

The convergence of leadership in government and industry tends towards oligarchy and elitism. While career opportunities within large organizations do ensure some ‘circulation of elites’, new leaders will get selected for their ability to work the established system of organizational networks or will probably be soon socialized into its values.

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