Karl Marx And Max Weber: What Is The Purpose Of Government?

Superior Essays
What is the purpose of government? Is there an ideal organizational structure that a country could employ to ensure that a government serves its people to the best of its ability? Karl Marx and Max Weber, like others before and after them, both strove to help answer these questions. Although one could argue that we may never find a “perfect” system of government, both men presented new ways of thinking that continue to influence society today. Before one can begin analyzing the details of Marx’s and Weber’s works, it is important to address the question of the purpose of government. According to William Johnson (2014), a government should, among other things, work to provide economic growth, support those who are unable to support themselves, promote quality of life, promote the ability of individuals to succeed, and maintain a supply of essential resources. While many of these tasks today are supported by both the private and the public sector (Johnson, 2014), in the end it is the government which is ultimately responsible. Keeping these suggested purposes of government in mind when analyzing the works of Marx and Weber may help one to better evaluate each man’s ideas. Another question one must also is how an organization should interact with both internal and external influences in the most optimal way possible. According to Mary Jo Hatch (1997), an organization consists of the relationship between the culture, physical structure, social structure, and technology which compose it. The environment itself must also be taken into consideration, for all of the structures which make up an organization will exist in and be influenced by the external environment. Additional, there are various approaches which one may take when evaluating a system of government, including the “classical” approach, the “behavioral” approach, and the “administration-as-politics” approach (Fry and Raadschelders, 2014). The classical approach, as is indicated by its name, takes a more traditional approach in which the administration is separated from politics. Within this approach were the ideas of scientific management and departmentalism; scientific management focused on routines and the repetition of tasks, and argued that there was generally one best way in which to approach a task. Departmentalism complimented scientific management in many ways, and while scientific management was concerned with the completion of tasks, departmentalism was concerned with how an organization is structured. It suggested that a chain of command be established so that duties became streamlined (Fry and Raadschelders, 2014). The behavioral approach seemed to build off of the classical approach and, while it still advocated for structures to be in place for streamlined work, it also suggested that decentralizing some aspects of work would lead works to become more involved and more invested in their tasks (Fry and Raadschelders, 2014). Finally, the administration-as-politics approach broke away from the separation of administration and politics that was encouraged by the classical and behavioral approaches. Instead, it embraced the idea of mixing politics with administration (Fry and Raadschelders, 2014). Understanding the ideas outlined above can help allow one to gain a deeper understanding of the works of Marx and Weber. In his writings, Marx aimed to find ways of improving life for the working man. He worried that capitalism would cause problems for the common worker, including alienation and deskilling. Marx also addressed the ongoing conflict between the need to be efficient and the need to be effective (Intellectual Heritage, 2014). …show more content…
By being efficient, Weber felt that a government could promote economic growth and ensure a steady supply of resources, leading to a better overall quality of life for its citizens. The feelings of workers were not seen as an important factor in Weber’s works, and he felt that many factors, not just economic status, could contribute to a person’s class and quality of life. Social status or a person’s career, for example, could help an individual live a higher class life even if he or she had a more limited income (Fry and Raadschelders, 2014). Marx and Weber viewed government in different ways, and, although their viewpoints were different, both offered valuable contributions to the government and bureaucracy as we know them today. While we may never truly find the “best” way to run a government, the importance of striving to operate in the best way possible will always remain.
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