Max Weber and the Bureaucracy in the Brazilian Public Administration: presentation of the problem and proposal of reform

Abstract

: When Max Weber wrote about rational domination, he noticed a certain tendency towards the bureaucratization of the State, which would be controlled by impersonally recruited agents, chosen to manage public functions. Those servants would be characterized by job stability and career progression. Political agents, on the other hand, who are chosen through methods other than merit, might see their role and space diminished by bureaucrats’ primacy. This article investigates which the essential characteristics that compose Weberian bureaucracy are, and analyzes critical appraisals of this model. Then, it studies Brazil’s contemporary bureaucracy, which is compared to the Weberian archetype. Last but not least, it presents a suggestion of bureaucratic structure for Brazil, which intends to overcome criticism of Weberian and Brazilian bureaucracies.