Anti-Administration: Redeeming Bureaucracy by Witnessing and Gifting

Abstract

Weber (194711964), in his description of a legal-rational administrative system, represents administrative orthodoxy.“Anti-administration,” in dialectical relationship to administrative orthodoxy, is reasonably construed as “not administrative orthodoxy,” and can legitimately take various forms. Both“charismatic” and “traditional,” Weber’s examples of non-rational administrative authority, are in opposition to orthodoxy, and either can easily assume the anti-administration mantle. Our view of anti-administration best fits Weber’s charismatic category, for “charisma” derives from the early Christian term “gift of grace” (Weber, 194711964, p. 328).“Redemption” is the act of recovering a relationship following a fall from grace. This paper suggests reasons for the deficiencies of orthodoxy, then offers witnessing and gifting as an anti-administration strategy for reclaiming a relationship of community among civil servants and citizens. In therapy, the psychologist starts where the patient is; likewise, the bureaucrat seeking to rebuild a relationship with the public must first find common ground with the citizen by charismatic means, which requires the bureaucrat to act anti-administratively, one-on-one.

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