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GOVERNMENT, POLITICS, CITIZENSHIP
a Contributions to this Departmentwill include matcrial of thrce kindsi (I) original discussion,. suggcstion, plans, programs
and (2) reports of special projects, working programs, conferencesand meetings, and progress in any distinctive aspect
of theories;
the field; (3) specialresults ofstudy andresearch.
thus complementary to Allport's analysis; the one Person," AmericanJournalof Sociology,XLIII (937),
stressing the psychological mechanisms involved, 404-4I3; R. K. Merton,"SocialStructureand Ano-
the other considering the constraints of the social mie," AmericanSociologicalReview,III (I938), 67X-68X;
structure. The convergence of psychology and E. T. Hiller, "Social Structure in Relation to the
sociology toward this central concept suggests that Person," Social Forces,XVI (937), 34-44.
it may well constitute one of the conceptual bridges 13 Mannheim, Ideologyand Utopia, p. io6.
564 SOCIAL FORCES
to which there is an Amnericanclaim because of the are designed to provide incentives for
exploration and occupation of it by Americans, this disciplined action and conformity to the
region being Little America.
The bureau of naturalization explains that it
official regulations.'5 The official is
cannot proceed on the assumption that Little America tacitly expected to and largely does adapt
is American soil. That would be trespass on inter- his thoughts, feelings, and actions to the
national questionswhere it has no sanction. So far prospect of this career. But these very
as the bureau is concerned, Balchen was out of the deviceswhich increase the probability of
country and technicallyhas not complied with the
law of naturalization.'4
conformance also lead to an over-concern
with strict adherenceto regulations which
Such inadequacies in orientation which induces timidity, conservatism, and tech-
involve trained incapacity clearly derive nicism. Displacement of sentiments from
from structural sources. The process may goals onto means is fostered by the
be briefly recapitulated. (i) An effective tremendous symbolic significance of the
bureaucracy demands reliability of re- means (rules).
sponse and strict devotion to regulations. Another feature of the bureaucratic
(z) Such devotion to the rules leads to structure tends to produce much the same
their transformation into absolutes; they result. Functionaries have the sense of a
are no longer conceived as relative to a common destiny for all those who work
given set of purposes. (3) This inter- together. They share the same interests,
feres with ready adaptation under special especially since there is relatively little
conditions not clearly envisaged by competition insofar as promotion is in
those who drew up the general rules. terms of seniority. In-group aggression
(4) Thus, the very eletnents which con- is thus mninimizedand this arrangement
duce toward efficiency in general produce is therefore conceived to be positively
inefficiency in specific instances. Full functional for the bureaucracy. How-
realization of the inadequacy is seldom ever, the esprit de corps and informal
attained by mnembersof the group who social organization which typically de-
have not divorced themnselvesfromnthe velops in such situations often leads the
"'meanings" which the rules have for personnel to defend their entrenched
them. These rules in time become sym- interests rather than to assist their
bolic in cast, rather than strictly clientele and elected higher officials. As
utilitarian. President Lowell reports, if the bureau-
Thus far, we have treated the ingrained crats believe that their status is not
sentiments making for rigorous discipline adequately recognized by an incoming
simply as data, as given. However, elected official, detailed information will
definite features of the bureaucratic struc- be withheld from him, leading him to
ture may be seen to conduce to these errors for which he is held responsible.
sentiments. The bureaucrat's official life Or, if he seeks to dominate fully, and
is planned for him in terms of a graded thus violates the sentiment of self-integ-
career, through the organizational devices rity of the bureaucrats, he may have
of promotion by seniority, pensions, documents brought to him in such num-
incremental salaries, etc., all of which bers that he cannot manage to sign them
14 Quoted from the ChicagoTribune(June 2.4, I93I, 15 Mannheim,Mensch und Gesellschaft,
pp. 32X-33.
p. io) by Thurman Arnold, The Symbolsof Government Mannheim stresses the importance of the "Lebens-
(New Haven: Yale University Press, I935), pp. 2OI-2.. plan" and the "Amtskarriere." See the comments
(My italics.) by Hughes, op. Cit., 4I3.
GOVERNMENT, POLITICS, CITIZENSHIP 565
all, let alone read them.16 This illustrates suggests, there may ensue, in particular
the defensive informal organization which vocations and in particular types of
tends to arise whenever there is an appar- organization, the process of soanctification
ent threat to the integrity of the group."7 (viewed as the counterpart of the process
It would be much too facile and partly of secularization). This is to say that
erroneous to attribute such resistance by through sentiment-formation, emotional
bureaucrats simply to vested interests. dependence- upon bureaucratic symbols
Vested interests oppose any new order and status, and affective involvement in
which either eliminates or at least makes spheres of competence and authority,
uncertain their differential advantage de- there develop prerogatives involving atti-
riving from the current arrangements. tudes of moral legitimacy which are
This is undoubtedly involved in part in established as values in their own right,
bureaucratic resistance to change but and are no longer viewed as merely
another process is perhaps more signifi- technical means for expediting adminis-
cant. As we have seen, bureaucratic tration. One may note a tendency for
officials affectively identify themselves certain bureaucratic norms, originally
with their way of life. They have a pride introduced for technical reasons, to be-
of craft which leads them to resist change come rigidified and sacred, although, as
in established routines; at least, those Durkheim would say, they are laique
changes which are felt to be imposed by en apparence.19 Durkheim has touched on
persons outside the inner circle of co- this general process in his description of
workers. This nonlogical pride of craft the attitudes and values which persist
is a familiar pattern found even, to judge in the organic solidarity of a highly
from Sutherland'sProfessionalThief, among differentiated society.
pickpockets who, despite the risk, delight Another feature of the bureaucratic
in mastering the prestige-bearing feat of structure, the stress on depersonalization
"beating a left breech" (picking the left of relationships, also plays its part in the
front trousers pocket). bureaucrat's trained incapacity. The per-
In a stimulating paper, Hughes has sonality pattern of the bureaucrat is
applied the concepts of "secular" and nucleated about this norm of imperson-
"sacred" to various types of division of ality. Both this and the categorizing
labor; "the sacredness" of caste and tendency, which develops from the dom-
Stiindeprerogatives contrasts sharply with
the increasing secularism of occupa- SystematicSociology(New York: John Wiley & Sons,
tional differentiation in our mobile so- 1932), pp- 2-22-5 et passim.
ciety.'8 However, as our discussion 19Hughes recognizes one phase of this process of
sanctificationiwhen he writes that professional train-
16 A. of England (New
L. Lowell, The Government ing "carries with it as a by-product assimilation of
York, 1908), I, I89 if. the candidate to a set of professional attitudes and
17 For an instructive description of the develop- controls, a professionalconscienceand solidarity. The
ment of such a defensive organization in a group of professionclaims and aims to becomea moral unit. "
workers, see F. J. Roethlisberger and W. J. Dickson, Hughes, op. cit., p. 76z, (italics inserted). In this
Management and the Worker(Boston: Harvard School same connection, Sumner's concept of pathos, as the
of BusinessAdministration, 1934). halo of sentiment which protects a social value from
18 E. C. Hughes, "Personality Types and the Divi- criticism, is particularly relevant, inasmuch as it
sion of Labor," AmericanJournalof Sociology,XXXIII affords a clue to the mechanisms involved in the
(19X8), 754-768. Much the same distinction is process of sanctification. See his Folkways(Boston:
drawn by Leopold von Wiese and Howard Becker, Ginn & Co., I906), pp. i8o-i8i.
566 SOCIAL FORCES
inant role of general, abstract rules, tend Still another source of conflict with the
to produce conflict in the bureaucrat's public derives from the bureaucratic
contacts with the public or clientele. structure. The bureaucrat, in part ir-
Since functionaries minimize personal rela- respective of his position within the
tions and resort to categorization, the hierarchy, acts as a representative of the
peculiarities of individual cases are often power and prestige of the entire structure.
ignored. But the client who, quite un- In his official role he is vested with
derstandably, is convinced of the "special definite authority. This often leads to
features" of his own problem often ob- an actual or apparent domineering atti-
jects to such categorical treatment. tude, which may only be exaggerated by
Stereotyped behavior is not adapted to a discrepancy between his position within
the exigencies of individual problems. the hierarchy and his position with
The impersonal treatment of affairs which reference to the public.2' Protest and
are at times of great personal significance recourse to other officials on the part of
to the client gives rise to the charge of the client are often ineffective or largely
"arrogance" and "haughtiness" of the precluded by the previously mentioned
bureaucrat. Thus, at the Greenwich Em- esprit de corps which joins the officials
ployment Exchange, the unemnployed into a more or less solidary in-group.
worker who is securing his insurance This source of conflict may be minimized
payment resents what he deems to be in private enterprise since the client can
"the impersonality and, at times, the register an effective protest by trans-
apparent abruptness and even harshness of ferring his trade to another organization
his treatment by the clerks. . . . Some within the competitive system. But with
men complain of the superior attitude the monopolistic nature of the public
which the clerks have."20 organization, no such alternative is pos-
sible. Moreover, in this case, tension is
20" 'They treat you like a lump of dirt they do. increased because of a discrepancy be-
I see a navvy reach across the counter and shake one of
them by the collar the other day. The rest of us
felt like cheering. Of course he lost his benefit persons in whom the craving for prestige is upper-
over it. . . . But the clerk deserved it for his sassy most, hostility usually takes the form of a desire to
way.' " (E. W. Bakke, The UnemployedMan, New humiliate others." (K. Horney, The Neurotic Per-
York: Dutton, 1934, pp. 79-80). Note that the sonality of Our Time, New York: Norton, I937, pp.
domineering attitude was imputedby the unemployed I78-79.)
client who is in a state of tension due to his loss of 21 In this connection, note the relevance of Koffka's
status and self-esteem in a society where the ideology comments on certain features of the pecking-order of
is still current that an "able man" can always find birds. "If one compares the behavior of the bird at
a job. That the imputation of arrogance stems the top of the pecking list, the despot, with that of
largely from the client's state of mind is seen from one very far down, the second or third from the last,
Bakke's own observation that "the clerks were then one finds the latter much more cruel to the few
rushed, and had no time for pleasantries, but there others over whom he lords it than the former in his
was little sign of harshness or a superiority feeling treatment of all members. As soon as one removes
in their treatment of the men." Insofar as there is from the group all members above the penultimate,
an objective basis for the imputation of arrogant his behavior becomes milder and may even become
behavior to bureaucrats,it may possibly be explained very friendly. . It is not difficult to find analogies
by the following juxtaposed statements. "Auch to this in human societies, and therefore one side of
der moderne, sei es 6ffentliche, sei es private, Beamte such behavior must be primarily the effects of the
erstrebt immer und geniesst meist den Beherrschten social groupings, and not of individual characteris-
gegenuiber eine spezifisch gehobene, 'standische' tics." K. Koffka, Principles of Gestalt Psychology
soziale SchAtzung." (Weber, op. cit., 65z.) "In (New York:Harcourt,Brace,1935), pp. 668-9.
GOVERNMENT, POLITICS, CITIZENSHIP 567
tween ideology and fact: the govern- these norms will arouse antagonism from
mental personnel are held to be "servants those whb have identified themselves with
of the people," but in fact they are usually the legitimacy of these rules. Hence, the
superordinate, and release of tension can substitution of personal for impersonal
seldom be afforded by turning to other treatment within the structure is met
agencies for the necessary service.22 This with widespread disapproval and is char-
tension is in part attributable to the con- acterized by such epithets as graft, favor-
fusion of status of bureaucrat and client; itism, nepotism, apple-polishing, etc.
the client may consider himself socially These epithets are clearly manifestations
superior to the official who is at the mno- of injured sentiments.24 The function of
ment dominant.23 such "automatic resentment" can be
Thus, with respect to the relations be- clearly seen in terms of the requirementsof
tween officials and clientele, one struc- bureaucratic structure.
tural source of conflict is the pressure for Bureaucracyis a secondary group mech-
formnal and impersonal treatment when anism designed to carry on certain ac-
individual, personalized consideration is tivities which cannot be satisfactorily
desired by the client. The conflict mnay performed on the basis of primary group
be viewed, then, as deriving from the criteria.25 Hence behavior which runs
introduction of inappropriate attitudes counter to these formalized norms becomes
and relationships. Conflict within the the object of emotionalized disapproval.
bureaucratic structure arises from the This constitutes a functionally significant
converse situation, namely, when person- defence set up against tendencies which
alized relationships are substituted for jeopardize the performance of socially
the structurally required impersonal rela- necessary activities. To be sure, these
tionships. This type of conflict may be reactions are not rationally determined
characterized as follows. practices explicitly designed for the ful-
The bureaucracy, as we have seen, is filment of this function. Rather, viewed
organized as a secondary, formnalgroup. in terms of the individual's interpretation
The normnalresponses involved in this of the situation, such resentment is simply
organized network of social expectations an immediate response opposing the
are supported by affective attitudes of "dishonesty" of those who violate the
members of the group. Since the group 24
The diagnostic significance of such linguistic
is oriented toward secondary norms of indices as epithets has scarcely been explored by the
impersonality, any failure to conform to sociologist. Sumner properly observes that epithets
produce "summary criticisms" and definitions of
22
At this point the political machine often be- social situations. Dollard also notes that "epithets
comes functionally significant. As Steffens and frequently define the central issues in a society,"
others have shown, highly personalized relations and Sapir has rightly emphasized the importance of
and the abrogation of formal rules (red tape) by the context of situations in appraising the significance
machine often satisfy the needs of individual "cli- of epithets. Of equal relevance is Linton's observa-
ents" more fully than the formalized mechanism of tion that "in case histories the way in which the
governmental bureaucracy. community felt about a particular episode is, if any-
23 As one of the unemployed men remarked about thing, more important to our study than the actual
the clerks at the Greenwich Employment Exchange: behavior...." A sociological study of "vocabu-
" 'And the bloody blokes wouldn't have their jobs laries of encomium and opprobrium" should lead to
if it wasn't for us men out of a job either. That's valuable findings.
what gets me about their holding their noses up.' 25 Cf. Ellsworth Faris, TheNatureof HumanNature
Bakke, op. cit., p. 8o. (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1937), pp. 41 ff.
568 SOCIAL FORCES
rules of the game. However, this sub- fled by the various bureaucracies (private
jective frame of referencenotwithstanding, enterprise, public service, the quasi-legal
these reactions serve the function of main- political machine, religious orders)? Inas-
taining the essential structural elements of much as ascendancy and submission are
bureaucracy by reaffirming the necessity held to be traits of personality, despite
for formalized, secondary relations and their variability in different stimulus-
by helping to prevent the disintegration situations, do bureaucraciesselect person-
of the bureaucraticstructure which would alities of particularly submissive or as-
occur should these be supplanted by cendant tendencies? And since various
personalized relations. This type of con- studies have shown that these traits can
flict may be generically described as the be modified, does participation in bureau-
intrusion of primary group attitudes when cratic office tend to increase ascendant
secondary group attitudes are institu- tendencies? Do various systems of re-
tionally demanded, just as the bureau- cruitment (e.g. patronage, open competi-
crat-client conflict often derives from tion involving specialized knowledge or
interaction on impersonal terms when "general mental capacity," practical ex-
personal treatment is individually de- perience) select different personality types?
Does promotion through seniority lessen
manded.26
competitive anxieties and enchance ad-
The trend toward increasing bureau-
ministrative efficiency? A detailed ex-
cratization in Western society, which
amination of mechanisms for imbuing the
Weber had long since foreseen, is not the
bureaucratic codes with affect would be
sole reason for sociologists to turn their instructive both sociologically and psy-
attention to this field. Empirical studies chologically. Does the general anon-
of the interaction of bureaucracy and ymity of civil service decisions tend to
personality should especially increase our restrict the area of prestige-symbols to a
understanding of social structure. A narrowly defined inner circle? Is there a
large number of specific questions invite tendency for differential association to be
our attention. To what extent are par- especially marked among bureaucrats?
ticular personality types selected and modi- The range of theoretically significant
and practically important questions would
26 Community disapproval of many forms of be-
seem to be limited only by the accessi-
havior may be analyzed in terms of one or the other
bility of the concrete data. Studies
of these patterns of substitution of culturally in-
appropriate types of relationship. Thus, prostitu- of religious, educational, military, eco-
tion constitutes a type-case where coitus, a form of nomic, and political bureaucraciesdealing
intimacy which is institutionally defined as symbolic with the interdependence of social organ-
of the most "sacred" primary group relationship, is ization and personality formation should
placed within a contractual context, symbolized by
constitute an avenue for fruitful research.
the exchange of that most impersonal of all symbols,
money. See Kingsley Davis, "The Sociology of
On that avenue, the functional analysis
Prostitution," AmericanSociologicalReview,II (937), of concrete structures may yet build a
744-55- Solomon's House for sociologists.