Introduction; Profit Management; Bureaucratic Management; Bureaucratic Management of Publicly Owned Enterprises; Bureaucratic Management of Private Enterprises; The Social and Political Implications of Bureaucratisation; The Psychological Consequences of Bureaucratisation; Is There Any Remedy Available?; Conclusion; Index.
Ludwig von Mises (18811973) was the leading spokesman of the Austrian School of economics throughout most of the twentieth century. Bettina Bien Greaves is a former resident scholar and trustee of the Foundation for Economic Education and was a senior staff member at FEE from 1951 to 1999.
Written by professor former Vienna Chamber of Commerce economist
Ludwig von Mises (1881-1973), Bureaucracy is a classic economic
treatise, first published in 1944, about how the efficient aspects
of private ownership and control of public good production
ultimately produces superior results compared to the mishmash of
publically administrated plans laced with codes of "officialdom",
government incompetence, unforeseen legal wranglings, graft, and
other ills. "Bureaucracy in itself is neither good nor bad," Mises
states; rather, bureaucracy is a valuable resource for managing
certain spheres of human activity, such as policing and courts of
law, yet ultimately a failure or even harmful when applied to
private enterprise, simply because forced obedience to strict rules
hobbles entrepreneurial managers' room to maneuver amid fluctuating
market situations, and stifles their innovation in response to
evolving consumer wants. "Under socialism . . . the beginner must
please the already settled. They do not like too efficient
newcomers. (Neither do old-established entrepreneurs like such men;
but, under the supremacy of the consumers, they cannot prevent
their competition.) In the bureaucratic machine of socialism the
way toward promotion is not achievement but the favor of the
superiors . . . The rising generation is at the mercy of the aged."
As timely and insightful now as it was over half a century ago,
Bureaucracy is highly recommended especially for college library
and economic studies shelves.
The Midwest Book Review
July 2007
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