Electorate Apathy and Disaffection
This is an excerpt from the paper...
Analysts have observed an increase among the electorate in both apathy and disaffection toward all levels of government. People have always complained about the bureaucracy they have to face when they have business with the government. They have always criticized programs which did not work and spending they feel is misdirected. They have also always been aware of governmental corruption and at times have been more or less willing to accept it as a given if not to tolerate it. In recent years, though, ethical questions have become more important as the public has become fed up with lapses in their bureaucratic structure. The perception is that government is beset by gridlock, incompetence, and corruption, and people have little patience with the corruption in particular. What is sought is a model of "bureaucratic responsibility" to deal with this issue and to set in place mechanisms which will guard against ethical lapses and cope with those that are found. The budgetary process is one area where the bureaucracy stands out clearly as a bureaucracy, with all departments vying for favor and attempting to prove their worth in order to garner financial support for the coming year. The budgetary process can serve as a way of testing for a model of bureaucratic responsibility. The basic conception of the bureaucracy was developed by Max Weber. Weber's key work is The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1930), written at a pivotal period in Weber's intellectua
. . .
of the society in which they are embedded, while Hummel sees them as separate worlds. There are connections, but finding them is a difficult quest. Those in society who come into contact with the bureaucracy find it to be something with which they have great difficulty. The reasons for these difficulties were first spelled out by Max Weber, who found that people in society and people in the bureaucracy relate differently. In society we relate to one another primarily through the meaning we attach to our actions: The bureaucrat, on the other hand, is restricted to those actions that his work rules permit him and that fall within the scope of his jurisdiction (Hummel, 1982, 5).
As a result, the bureaucrat ignores behavior and signals that would have meaning in a different context but which have no meaning in the bureaucratic situation because the rules say they do not.
Hummel is very much a Weberian observer of the bureaucracy, and he approaches the bureaucracy in terms of its peculiar psychology and specific behaviors that separate it from society. He addresses the same issue that interests Denhardt--how does the bureaucrat do his or her job and divorce bureaucratic behavior from personal needs and behaviors? Personal n
. . .
Some common words found in the essay are:
Spirit Capitalism, Hummel Weberian, United Fourth, , Max Weber, public administration, Henriques DB, Press Weber, Denhardt RB, HarperCollins Wildavsky, theory practice, budgetary process, Hummel RP, public authorities, bureaucratic structure, public organizations, wildavsky 1992, model bureaucratic responsibility, bureaucratic life, bureaucratic experience, bureaucratic responsibility, hummel 1984 17, ethic spirit capitalism, bureaucracy public administration, protestant ethic spirit,
Approximate Word count = 2307
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)
More Essays on Electorate Apathy and Disaffection
|
Customer Service
to Over
32,000 Professionally Written Papers!!!
