According to Max Weber, an intimate interrelationship exists between bureaucracy and democracy. For Weber, an effective democracy cannot exist without an effective bureaucracy, not only in terms of the day-to-day administrative requirements of a modern economy and political system, but also in terms of safeguarding the nation from unbridled corruption and abuse of power by democratically-elected officials and their appointees, as in the case of the Watergate scandal. However, toward the end of his career, Weber had backed away somewhat from his appreciation of the bureaucracy, fearing it could become a government in itself in which order would the only remaining value or ideal. For most of his career, Weber did view the bureaucracy as a dialectical helpmate of democracy.
Broom and Selznick write that Weber takes a generally positive view of a branch of government which is too often denigrated by public and politicians alike for what is seen as its role in preventing speedy and effective government action. In fact, however, as Weber argues, the bureaucracy serves a vital function in any government which seeks to operate effectively and rationally:
Bureaucracy has a positive connotation when it is considered as a rational way of organizing complex activities. This point of view is associated with the writings of Weber, who saw the rise of modern bureaucracy as part of a larger social process--the rational reconstruction of human institutions (Broom and Selznick 205).
This emphasis on order and rationality is a hallmark of Weber's belief that a strong and effective bureaucracy undergirds a strong and effective democracy. Weber believes that a democracy tends to irrationality at times, and the bureaucracy is meant to correct such tendencies, in economics, politics, and culture. Weber "was especially interested in the impingement on the economy of the political power system of the modern state, and of value-attitudes associate...