Marxism and bureaucracy

Abstract

This thesis is concerned with the career of a concept within a t radi t ion of thought which combines social and p o l i t ica l theory and revolutionary ideology. The concept is 1 bureaucracy' ; the t radi t ion is revolutionary Marxism. The thesis attempts to explore the role and importance of the concept in the writings of several writers who stand at central and strategic points in the development of Marxist ref lect ion on bureaucracy, and to discuss the adequacy and u t i l i t y of these wr i ters' analyses of what they take ' bureaucracy1 to be. Marxists were not the only thinkers, nor were they the f i r s t , to discuss the role of bureaucracy in comtemporary and future societies. The thesis has therefore considered the thoughts of a number of pre- and non-Marxists. In par t icular , the writings of two thinkers who gave special attention to the social and p o l i t ic a l consequences of administrative imperatives - Henri Saint-Simon and Max Weber - have proved par t icular ly illuminating. Saint-Simon bequeathed to, or at least shared with Marxists, many important ideas and predictions which relate to our theme. Weber was both profoundly influenced by Marxist social theory, and, with regard to bureaucracy, profoundly c r i t ic a l of revolutionary Marxism. In this century the theories and prophecies of both wr i ters, as of Marxists themselves, have been put to test. The ideas discussed here have been concerned with, and greatly affected and at times challenged by, economic, social and p o l i t ica l developments in the past two centuries, and in par t icular by the course and fate of the f i r s t successful Marxist-led revolution, the Russian Revolution of 1917. The thesis has sought to take these developments, and thei r practical and theoretical consequences, into account.