SOCIOL 2S06 Lecture 16: SOCIOL 2KK3 March 12th-Rationalization and Bureaucracy

• School: McMaster University
• Department: Sociology
• Course: SOCIOL 2S06
• Professor: David Young

Document Summary

Rationalization involves the movement away from mystical and religious interpretations of the world toward a development of human thought and belief based on the systematic accumulation of evidence. Used to identify and calculate efficient predictable courses of action or forms of control. Ideal type refers to a description that captures the characteristics of a social object or a phenomenon in its pure form. It is an analytical concept that is used for purposes of comparison, the ideal type is a useful concept due to the above. We can compare various types of bureaucracy with the ideal type of bureaucracy. What they are vs what they should be. Clearly defined and specialized duties, they are going to have a well established division of labour assigning fixed duties to officials. Will have hierarchy, different levels of authority. Have pyramid structure in which some officials are subordinate to and are supervised by other officials.