Michel Crozier's Long March: The Making of The Bureaucratic Phenomenon

In: Political studies, Band 40, Heft 1, S. 5-20

Abstract

Hailed as a landmark in the development of both the sociology of organizations & the study of 1960s French society, Michel Crozier's The Bureaucratic Phenomenon (see SA 13:2/65B5079) is reexamined. To understand its genesis requires an exercise in the history of contemporary thought, locating Crozier's magnum opus within the context of the influence of A. Gouldner, J. March, & H. Simon. His initial intellectual interest was with the role of trade unions in the US & France during the Cold war, which led to his main cultural finding: the fear of face-to-face communication, requiring impersonal mediation to avoid confrontation with those in authority. He argued that France required a new style of authority, & her intellectuals should provide it as a way of dealing with the problem of overcoming cultural lag & changing France into a modern industrial society. Adapted from the source document.