官僚制:现代社会的政治象征抑或政治魔咒——西方学者视域下的官僚制

Bureaucracy: The Political Symbol or Curse of Modern Society——Bureaucracy in the View of Western Scholars

官僚制在国外尤其是西方国家已历经足够的时间和空间成长,国外有关官僚制的研究也积淀了十分丰厚的理论成果。全面了解国外相关理论、多维度解析不同思想、批判性整合相关观点,有助于对官僚制作更深入的关切和正当的扬弃。文章考察了官僚制的起源及其概念内涵,重点阐释了韦伯的官僚制理论。在此基础上深入分析了西方学者视角下现代社会官僚制的利与弊。一方面,官僚制导致国家事务日益机械化、政府权力过于集中且不受限制、政府工作效率低下和民主价值缺失;另一方面,官僚制又是现代社会发展的必然产物,是现代社会组织的有效形式。文章最后落脚于对官僚制走向和发展趋势的理性思索。

With continuous exploring, great theoretical achievements have been made in the study of bureaucracy in foreign countries, especially in western countries. It will be conducive to sublate rightly and research in bureaucracy further if we can understand the concerning foreign theories comprehensively, analyze different ideas from many dimensions and integrate relevant perspectives critically. The article examines the origin and concept of bureaucracy, and focuses on the bureaucratic theory of Weber. It tries to clarify the bureaucracy from two aspects of advantages and disadvantages in the perspective of western scholars. On the one hand, the bureaucracy has led to the increasing mechanization of state affairs, the excessively concentrated and unrestricted government power, the low efficiency of government and the lack of democracy. On the other, as an effective form of social organization, the bureaucracy is inevitable in modern society. Finally, it makes comments on the trend of bureaucracy.