Bauman and bureaucracy/morality

Question 1

What are the 3 main features of bureaucracy?

Answer 1

1. Hierarchy
2. Specialisation and Routinisation
3. Governed by formal, regulated rules

Question 2

What 3 features of bureaucracy erode morality?

Answer 2

1. Authority – command demands violence/ act on order rather than applying rational thought
2. Routinisation – continued task becomes mundane
3. Dehumanisation – make the target less than human eg. Name becomes a number

Question 3

What example does Bauman give for bureaucracy eroding morality?

Answer 3

Holocaust

Question 4

What is moral in a bureaucratic system?

Answer 4

what is ‘right’ is following the rules and orders which is what good bureaucrats do

Question 5

How does the division of labour erode morality?

Answer 5

you are only aware of the task you are doing and not the full consequences; decompartmentalising

Question 6

What does the whole process allow?

Answer 6

the production of moral invisibility

Question 7

What is a criticism of the impact of bureaucracy on morality?

Answer 7

Assumes people as passive being who do not think rationally about their own actions.

Question 8

What is a criticism of baumans application of this theory to the Holocaust?

Answer 8

In these types of severe events, the question of morality may have already surpassed bureaucracy.

Question 9

What is a criticism of Bauman’s usage of this theory?

Answer 9

Call into question Bauman’s own preconception of what constitutes as ‘moral’