Books in Brief: The Administrative Revolution

The Administrative Revolution, by George E. Berkley (Prentice-Hall, 181 pp., $5.95 cloth; $2.45 paper). Rather confidently subtitled “Notes on the Passing of Organization Man,” this engaging little book, by a political scientist who was formerly chairman of the Boston Finance Commission, should bring some joy to those who feel strangled by bureaucracy. Employing data from Europe, Japan, Israel and elsewhere, as well as a wealth of material from America, Professor Berkley shows less that organization man is on his way out than that his role is rapidly altering, in ways some of which were unimagined even a few years back. Berkley is urbane and exceedingly good-natured about these alterations; obviously his experiences in the “workaday world,” as the president of his university puts it, disabused him of whatever fantasies he might once have entertained about bureaucracy as the salvation of mankind. Although the author is obviously in favor of changes in administrative structures, both governmental and private, which lead to more diversification in decision-making, he evinces little of the “power to the people” rubbish so popular at present. Berkley holds no brief either for centralization or decentralization per se, but suggests rather that according to the circumstances, one or the other can be advantageous both for the organization and its personnel. His framework, I believe, is Tocquevillian; that is, pro centralized-government but anti centralized-administration. As a happy bonus, this deceptively modest book deftly beheads some of the more demonological notions of Vance Packard and J. Kenneth Galbraith. Professor Berkley’s breadth of learning is refreshing—-especially for a political scientist. Dear to my heart is his use of a precept from the Chinese sage Lao Tzu: “When the best leader’s work is done, the people say ‘we did it ourselves.’ “ Berkley concludes with a sensible chapter on the quest for community, showing some of the ways in which changes in modern life have necessitated a newer conception of community.

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D. J. C. Brudnoy

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Alexis de Tocqueville

The Administrative Revolution, by George E. Berkley (Prentice-Hall, 181 pp., $5.95 cloth; $2.45 paper). Rather confidently subtitled “Notes on the Passing of Organization Man,” this engaging little book, by a political scientist who was formerly chairman of the Boston Finance Commission, should bring some joy to those who feel strangled by bureaucracy. Employing data from Europe, Japan, Israel and elsewhere, as well as a wealth of material from America, Professor Berkley shows less that organization man is on his way out than that his role is rapidly altering, in ways some of which were unimagined even a few years back. Berkley is urbane and exceedingly good-natured about these alterations; obviously his experiences in the “workaday world,” as the president of his university puts it, disabused him of whatever fantasies he might once have entertained about bureaucracy as the salvation of mankind. Although the author is obviously in favor of changes in administrative structures, both governmental and private, which lead to more diversification in decision-making, he evinces little of the “power to the people” rubbish so popular at present. Berkley holds no brief either for centralization or decentralization per se, but suggests rather that according to the circumstances, one or the other can be advantageous both for the organization and its personnel. His framework, I believe, is Tocquevillian; that is, pro centralized-government but anti centralized-administration. As a happy bonus, this deceptively modest book deftly beheads some of the more demonological notions of Vance Packard and J. Kenneth Galbraith. Professor Berkley’s breadth of learning is refreshing—-especially for a political scientist. Dear to my heart is his use of a precept from the Chinese sage Lao Tzu: “When the best leader’s work is done, the people say ‘we did it ourselves.’ “ Berkley concludes with a sensible chapter on the quest for community, showing some of the ways in which changes in modern life have necessitated a newer conception of community.