ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors describe the development of bureaucratic rigidities according to the evolution of industrial society and the special place of the French model within this evolution. French bureaucratic rationality has relied on individual effervescence and competition to produce new and more elaborate models of routine activities to be carried out on an egalitarian and impersonal basis after having overcome the resistance of groups. The authors examine in the case of French public administration, how the forces of resistance and the forces of change can be roughly appraised in terms of action. Two general factors influence the evolution of organizational patterns in modern society in a way Weber did not foresee. The factors are constant progress in the techniques of prediction and organization; and growing sophistication of the individual in an increasingly complex culture. People can measure their contribution to the organization in a more precise way; they are no longer obliged to bargain for all or nothing.
