刘亚平 专业英语 刘亚平 专业英语(第十周)bureaucratic structure and personality

• The ideal type of such formal organization is bureaucracy and, in many respects, the classical analysis of bureaucracy is that by Max Weber.
• Bureaucracy involves a clear-cut division of integrated activities which are regarded as duties inherent in the office. A system of differentiated controls and sanctions is stated in the regulations. The assignment of roles occurs on the basis of technical qualifications which are ascertained through formalized, impersonal procedures. Within the structure of hierarchically arranged authority, the activities of “trained and salaried experts” are governed by general, abstract, and clearly defined rules which preclude the necessity for the issuance of specific instructions for each specific case. The generality of the rules requires the constant use of categorization, whereby individual problems and cases are classified on the basis of designated criteria and are treated accordingly. The pure type of bureaucratic official is appointed, either by a superior or through the exercise of impersonal competition; he is not elected.

Toward a New Public Administration
George Frederickson
Present the author’s interpretation as it emerged at the Minnowbrook Conference on New Public Administration. Describe how this interpretation and synthesis of new Public Administration relates to the wider world of administrative thought and practice. Interpret what new Public Administration means for organization theory and vice versa.
A fundamental commitment to social equity means that new Public Administration is anxiously engaged in change. Simply put, new Public Administration seeks to change those policies and structures that systematically inhabit social equity. This is not seeking change for change’s sake, but seeking the changes which would enhance its objectives—good management, efficiency, economy, and social equity.

• Victory at the polls does not yield either a clear-cut grant of power or a unified majority support for a coherent program.
• Integration of the administrative structure through an over-all purpose in terms of which tasks and priorities can be established is an emergency phenomenon. In ordinary times the manifold pressures of our pluralistic society work themselves out in accordance with the balance of forces prevailing in Congress and the agencies.
• Much of administrative thought, when it does not assume the value of coordination for coordination’s sake, operates on the assumption that there must be something akin to Rosseau’s volonte generale (公共意志) in administration to which the errant volonte de tous (个人意志) of the bureaus can and should be made to conform. The answer for Rousseau was enlightened dictatorship or counting the votes.

• Feminist ideas is less hierarchical and more interactive, therefore less elitist and more democratic.
– A view of power not only as a mode of domination but also as a form of enabling capacity.
– Traditionally female acts of compassion and nurturance can also be heroic.
• Rethink the desirability of public honor and fame:
• interactive images.
Administrative Discretion
• Use rather than ignore the neglected perspectives reflected in particular experiences of particular groups of women.
• We should
– Try to open up the discourse of public administration to these perspectives
– Existing values are accepted, form the basis for critique rather than being the object of it.
Three perspectives in feminist theory
• Perceived differences between men and women, whether natural or not, matter.