Political Science 1020E Lecture Notes - Lecture 19: Rational Agent, Spoils System, Big Government

• School: Western University
• Department: Political Science
• Course: Political Science 1020E
• Professor: Nigmendra Narain

Document Summary

We begin this lecture with the distinction between patrimonial and bureaucratic administration. Patrimonial administration was found in earlier stages of state formation in. Europe, and involved monarchs bringing people into direct, personal service. Administrators (cid:449)e(cid:396)e i(cid:374)itiall(cid:455) the (cid:373)e(cid:373)(cid:271)e(cid:396)s of the (cid:373)o(cid:374)a(cid:396)(cid:272)h(cid:859)s household, a(cid:374)d this (cid:449)a(cid:455) of thi(cid:374)ki(cid:374)g (cid:396)e(cid:373)ai(cid:374)ed as state formation greatly expanded the number of administrators. Over time, however, more demanding wars, more complex societies and economies, and popular demands for the state to assume greater responsibility for human welfare made this approach increasingly unworkable. The new approach, as captured by max weber in his writings, was bureaucratic administration. Weber theorized that modern states, and all modern social and economic institutions in fact, would opt for bureaucratic organization because of the immense efficiency gains it would bring. And civil servants help set the political agenda and provide advice and information that feeds into the legislative process.