Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T04:36:34.042Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Does Meritocracy Lead to Bureaucratic Quality? Revisiting the Experience of Prussia and Imperial and Weimar Germany

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 January 2018

David Delfs Erbo Andersen
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

How do state bureaucracies become high-quality organizations? Leading comparative politics studies assume that bureaucratic quality is forged by the introduction of meritocratic personnel systems because meritocracies, in contrast to politicized bureaucracies, select the most competent applicants for the jobs at hand. However, in line with principal-agent theory I propose that without a certain level of responsiveness of bureaucrats to the government in place and its policies, the positive consequences of meritocracy for bureaucratic quality are drastically reduced. Meritocracy is likewise essential to bureaucratic quality but, given that it demands some bureaucratic autonomy, meritocracy also creates a control problem. To study the consequences of meritocracy for bureaucratic quality, I revisit bureaucratic developments in the paradigmatically important historical cases of Prussia as well as Imperial and Weimar Germany. Based on extant scholarship of Prussian and German bureaucratic history, the analysis shows that bureaucratic quality varies over time with responsiveness even when meritocraticness is constant at high and low levels, and that governments knowing this hesitate to adopt meritocratic systems despite their advantages if they believe the bureaucracy will be unresponsive. Studying Prussia and Germany historically helps distinguish between the consequences for bureaucratic quality of meritocracy from those of responsiveness. On this basis, I identify where comparative politics studies may benefit from adding, in a comparative historical perspective, responsiveness to the explanation of bureaucratic quality.

Type
Research Article
Information
Social Science History , Volume 42 , Issue 2 , Summer 2018 , pp. 245 - 268
Copyright
Copyright © Social Science History Association, 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aberbach, Joel D., and Rockman, Bert A. (1994) “Civil servants and policymakers: Neutral or responsive competence?,” Governance 7 (4): 461–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bäck, Hanna, and Hadenius, Axel (2008) “Democracy and state capacity: Exploring a J-shaped relationship.” Governance 21 (1): 1–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bayart, Jean-Francois (2009) The State in Africa: The Politics of the Belly, 2nd ed. New York: Wiley Books.Google Scholar
Beck, Hermann (1995) The Origins of the Authoritarian Welfare State in Prussia. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bendor, Jonathan, Glazer, Ami, and Hammond, Thomas H. (2001) “Theories of delegation.” Annual Review of Political Science 4: 235–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bockenforde, Wolfgang (1985) “Der Zusammenbruch der Monarchie und die Entstehung der weimarer Republik,” in Jeserich, Kurt G. A., Pohl, Hans, and von Unruh, Georg-Christoph (eds.) Deutsche Verwaltungsgeschichte. Stuttgart, Germany: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt: 1–23.Google Scholar
Bonham, Gary (1983) “State autonomy or class domination: Approaches to administrative politics in Wilhelmine Germany.” World Politics 35 (4): 631–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Braun, Rudolf (1975) “Taxation, sociopolitical structure, and state-building: Great Britain and Brandenburg-Prussia,” in Tilly, Charles (ed.) The Formation of National States of Western Europe. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press: 243–328.Google Scholar
Caplan, Jane (1979) “The imaginary universality of particular interests: The ‘tradition’ of the civil service in German history.” Social History 4 (2): 299–317.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caplan, Jane (1988) Government without Administration: State and Civil Service in Weimar and Nazi Germany. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Christensen, Tom (1991) “Bureaucratic roles: Political loyalty and bureaucratic autonomy.” Scandinavian Political Studies 14 (4): 303–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cornell, Agnes (2014) “Why bureaucratic stability matters for the implementation of democratic governance programs.” Governance 27 (2): 191–214.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cornell, Agnes, and Lapuente, Victor (2014) “Meritocratic administration and democratic stability.” Democratization 21 (7): 1286–1304.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Craig, Gordon A. (1978) Germany, 1866–1945. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Crawford, Beverly, Brady, John S., and Wiliarty, Sarah Elise (1999) “Germany transformed? A framework for analysis,” in Brady, John S., Crawford, Beverly, and Wiliarty, Sarah Elise (eds.) The Postwar Transformation of Germany: Democracy, Prosperity, and Nationhood. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press: 1–32.Google Scholar
Dahlström, Carl, Lapuente, Victor, and Teorell, Jan (2012) “The merit of meritocratization: Politics, bureaucracy, and the institutional deterrents of corruption.” Political Research Quarterly 65 (3): 656–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dogan, Mattei (1975) “The political power of the western Mandarins: Introduction,” in Dogan, Mattei (ed.) The Mandarins of Western Europe. New York: Sage Publications: 3–25.Google Scholar
Dorn, Walter L. (1931) “The Prussian bureaucracy in the eighteenth century.” Political Science Quarterly 46 (3): 403–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Downs, Anthony (1967) Inside Bureaucracy. Boston: Little, Brown and Company.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Easton, David (1975) “A re-assessment of the concept of political support.” British Journal of Political Science 5 (4): 435–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eddie, S. A. (2013) Freedom's Price: Serfdom, Subjection, and Reform in Prussia, 1648–1848. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Englebert, Pierre (2000) “Solving the mystery of the AFRICA dummy.” World Development 28 (10): 1821–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Epstein, David, and O'Halloran, Sharyn (1994) “Administrative procedures, information, and agency discretion.” American Journal of Political Science 38 (3): 697–722.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ertman, Thomas (1997) Birth of the Leviathan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evans, Peter B. (1995) Embedded Autonomy: States and Industrial Transformation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evans, Peter, and Rauch, James E. (1999) “Bureaucracy and growth: A cross-national analysis of the effects of ‘Weberian’ state structures on economic growth.” American Sociological Review 64 (5): 748–65.Google Scholar
Fischer, Wolfram, and Lundgreen, Peter (1975) “The recruitment and training of administrative and technical personnel,” in Tilly, Charles (ed.) The Formation of National States of Western Europe. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press: 456–562.Google Scholar
Friedrich, Carl J. (1933) “The development of the executive power in Germany.” American Political Science Review 27 (2): 185–203.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fukuyama, Francis (2013) “What is governance?,” Governance 26 (3): 347–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fukuyama, Francis (2014) Political Order and Political Decay. London: Profile books.Google Scholar
Gailmard, Sean, and Patty, John W. (2007) “Slackers and zealots: Civil service, policy discretion, and bureaucratic expertise.” American Journal of Political Science 51 (4): 873–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Geddes, Barbara (1991) “A game theoretic model of reform in Latin American democracies.” American Political Science Review 85 (2): 371–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gillis, John R. (1971) The Prussian Bureaucracy in Crisis 1840–1860. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Gorski, Philip S. (2003) The Disciplinary Revolution. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gruening, Gernod (2001) “Origin and theoretical basis of New Public Management.” International Public Management Journal 4 (1): 1–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hagen, William W. (1976) “The partitions of Poland and the crisis of the old regime in Prussia 1772–1806.” Central European History 9 (2): 115–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hanson, Jonathan K., and Sigman, Rachel (2013) Leviathan's Latent Dimension: Measuring State Capacity for Comparative Political Research. World Bank Political Economy Brown Bag Lunch Series, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Henderson, Jeffrey, Hulme, David, Jalilian, Hossein, and Phillips, Richard (2007) “Bureaucratic effects: ‘Weberian’ state agencies and poverty reduction.” Sociology 41 (3): 515–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huber, John D., and Shipan, Charles R. (2002) Deliberate discretion? The institutional foundations of bureaucratic autonomy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hughes, Edward (1942) “Civil service reform 1853–5.” History 27 (105): 51–83.Google Scholar
Hyden, Goran (2006) African Politics in Comparative Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kaufmann, Daniel, Kraay, Aart, and Mastruzzi, Massimo (2009) “Governance matters VIII: Aggregate and individual governance indicators 1996–2008.” Policy Research Working Paper 4978, World Bank Development Research Group, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Koch, H. W. (1984) A Constitutional History of Germany in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. Harlow, UK: Longman.Google Scholar
Kopecky, Petr, Mair, Peter, and Spirova, Maria (2012) Party Patronage and Party Government in European Democracies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis, David E. (2008) The Politics of Presidential Appointments: Political Control and Bureaucratic Performance. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liu, Tien-Lung (1997) “On whose side is the state? The German labor ministry and industrial relations, 1918–1933.” Journal of Historical Sociology 10 (4): 361–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mäding, Erhard (1985) “Aufgabenfelder und Aufgabenordnung der Republik,” in Jeserich, Kurt G. A., Pohl, Hans, and von Unruh, Georg-Christoph (eds.) Deutsche Verwaltungsgeschichte. Stuttgart, Germany: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt: 92–112.Google Scholar
Mann, Bernhard (1985) “Zwischen Hegemonie und Partikularismus,” in Ritter, Gerhard A. (ed.) Regierung, Bürokratie und Parlament in Preussen und Deutschland von 1848 bis zur Gegenwart. Düsseldorf, Germany: Droste: 76–90.Google Scholar
McElligott, Anthony (2014) Rethinking the Weimar Republic: Authority and Authoritarianism, 1916–1936. London: Bloomsbury Academic.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Migdal, Joel S. (1988) Strong Societies and Weak States: State-Society Relations and State Capabilities in the Third World. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Miller, Gary (2000) “Above politics: Credible commitment and efficiency in the design of public agencies.” Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 10 (2): 289–327.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mommsen, Hans (1991) From Weimar to Auschwitz. Oxford: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Müller, Tim B. (2014) “Demokratie und Wirtschaftspolitik in der Weimarer Republik.” Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte 62 (4): 569–601.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olsen, Johan P. (2006) “Maybe it is time to rediscover bureaucracy.” Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 16 (1): 1–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peters, B. Guy, and Pierre, Jon (2004) The Politicization of the Civil Service in Comparative Perspective: The Quest for Control. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Petzina, Dietmar (1985) “Soziale und wirtschaftliche Entwichlung,” in Jeserich, Kurt G. A., Pohl, Hans, and von Unruh, Georg-Christoph (eds.) Deutsche Verwaltungsgeschichte. Stuttgart, Germany: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt: 39–66.Google Scholar
PRS (2014) International Country Risk Guide Methodology. The PRS Group, https://www.prsgroup.com/about-us/our-two-methodologies/icrg (accessed July 31, 2015).Google Scholar
Raadschelders, Jos C. N., and Rutgers, Mark R. (1996) “The evolution of civil service systems,” in Bekke, Hans A. G. M., Perry, James L., and Toonen, Theo A. J. (eds.) Civil Service Systems in Comparative Perspective. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press: 67–99.Google Scholar
Rauch, James E., and Evans, Peter B. (2000) “Bureaucratic structure and bureaucratic performance in less developed countries.” Journal of Public Economics 75 (1): 49–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rothstein, Bo, and Teorell, Jan (2008) “What is quality of government? A theory of impartial government institutions.” Governance 21 (2): 165–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosenberg, Hans (1958) Bureaucracy, Aristocracy, and Autocracy: The Prussian Experience 1660–1815. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Runge, Wolfgang (1965) Politik und Beamtentum im Parteienstaat. Stuttgart, Germany: Ernst Klett Verlag.Google Scholar
Sheehan, James J. (1989) German History 1770–1866. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Shefter, Martin (1994) Political Parties and the State: The American Historical Experience. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Silberman, Bernard S. (1993) Cages of Reason. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Simon, Herbert A. (1976) Administrative Behavior: A Study of Decision-Making Processes in Administrative Organization, 3rd ed. New York: The Free Press.Google Scholar
Steinmetz, George (1993) Regulating the Social: The Welfare State and Local Politics in Imperial Germany. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weber, Max (1978) Economy and Society. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.Google Scholar
West, William F. (2005) “Neutral competence and political responsibility: An uneasy relationship.” The Policy Studies Journal 33 (2): 147–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, James Q. (1989) Bureaucracy: What Government Agencies Do and Why They Do It. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Wimmer, Andreas (2013) Waves of War: Nationalism, State Formation, and Ethnic Exclusion in the Modern World. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ziblatt, Daniel (2006) Structuring the State. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar