Samuel Krislov

It's hard to see on what merits this book could be included in a series called "Classics of the social sciences". The author's idea of bureaucratic representation is very simple: he thinks all government recruitment should reflect societal diversity. The interests and opinions of the populace would thereby be reflected not only in elected parliaments but in the executive offices as well, at least to some approximation.

That would no doubt be a good thing, but the author's argument is simple and tedious. He doesn't say much about anything. At the end of chapter 3 his conclusion is that "organizations with tasks require certain skills and types of persons to carry out those assigned purposes". The gist of chapter 4 is equally obvious: "human potentialities brought by bureaucrats to their jobs are inevitable and advantageous". The book is only 140 pages long, but it's hard to sustain interest in its thin argument.

The book was written in the 1970s and some chapters are therefore badly outdated. Apparently no editorial staff bothered to read this republication when it came from the press. It contains a number of typographical errors, including this bizarre sentence on page 54: "The calculations of advantages tittered involve not only utilitarian and psychic satisfactions bin also hull re advantages".… (mais)