The Theory Primer by Mark A. Schneider

Author:Mark A. Schneider [Schneider, Mark A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781461645832
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Published: 2013-06-26T16:00:00+00:00

The result of officials generating their own pay is that they become increasingly independent of those above them, and as their independence grows, the bureaucratic structure of authority weakens to the point where it can cease to exist. Yet, the specifics of this case are less important than the theoretical point behind addressing bureaucracy’s presuppositions.

Note that Weber does not argue that a monetary economy causes bureaucracies to form. Bureaucracies are formed by specific individuals with specific purposes in mind—not by the pervasiveness of money. Yet, easy access to money profoundly facilitates their formation and maintenance, and Weber gives us a very specific and practical reason why this is so: it allows those in charge to retain their authority. Another way of putting this is to say that the empirical generalization “the more monetized an economy, the more bureaucracies” does not identify a causal connection between the two variables. Not only is money not a sufficient condition for bureaucracy (in which case it would be a cause), but it is not even a necessary condition.24 This doesn’t mean, however, it isn’t important since it’s only in relatively rare circumstances that we get bureaucracies in the absence of money.

A good deal of sociological explanation involves outlining presuppositions (or preconditions) in this way. We’re interested not just in understanding the causal connections between independent and dependent variables, but in describing the circumstances that facilitate or impede the occurrence of our variables. If we think back to earlier discussions, we can note how presuppositions have already been at work in our analysis. For instance, in Culture of Honor (1996), Richard Nisbett and Dov Cohen argue that herding economies are apt to create the circumstances in which a readiness to resort to violence is functional and often gets dressed up culturally in codes of honor. In their case, herding stood to honor rather as money stands to bureaucracy for Weber. Neither of the former phenomena (herding or money) is necessary or sufficient to produce the latter (honor or bureaucracy), but each normally generates circumstances where the latter becomes much more likely. This sort of knowledge makes our theories or explanations much richer and more useful.

Because this point is so important, I want to make it again by means of an analogy. As I look out the window of my study right now, I can see cypress trees and cattails growing at the waterline of a small lake. Somewhat back from the waterline are oak trees. The positioning of the cypresses and cattails in relation to the oaks is not coincidental. Both of the former thrive in or near water, in circumstances where oaks would likely die. Let’s call information of this sort ecological. Ecological knowledge concerns the conditions in which particular species thrive, do poorly, or fail to occur at all, as well as the relations among species. In terms of this analogy, when Weber discusses the presuppositions of bureaucracies, he is really establishing their social ecology—an understanding of the social and material circumstances in which they either thrive or fail to prosper.

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