ABSTRACT
The development of bureaucracy has made us a less servile people. It has helped to make jobs secure and has based appointments and promotions on qualifications rather than personal connections. It has regulated activity through rules; but obedience to rules is probably less humiliating than submission to persons. Bureaucracies co-ordinate the diverse activities of specialists and organize them in a rational plan. They enjoin disciplined and predictable behaviour. Max Weber described the 'ideal-type' bureaucracy. The bureaucratization of the civil service has probably done more for the dignity and self-respect of British intellectuals than any other institutional change of the past century. The education service served the new bureaucracies by certifieating its own products and grading them for appropriate levels of bureaucratic employment. The bureaucratization of schools has given more dignity and power to headmasters; and it has given more to assistant masters.
