Wikipedia: a self-organizing bureaucracy

Abstract

Many authors have argued that digital technologies enable collaboration without central oversight or authority, obviating the need for the hierarchical bureaucracies that characterize industrial capitalism. In this context, Wikipedia is often mentioned as a paradigmatic example. We draw on the classical accounts of Robert Michels and Max Weber to study mechanisms pushing towards or away from power concentration and bureaucratization. Our historical analysis of bureaucratization and power concentration in Wikipedia is based on 118 conversations and interviews as well as extensive archival research. While most studies on Wikipedia only consider the online encyclopedia itself, we also scrutinize the Wikimedia Foundation. Our analysis uncovers alternating processes of power concentration and power diffusion. While we observe power concentration for reasons anticipated by Michels, we also find strong counter-tendencies. Consequently, power concentration does not follow an ‘iron law’ but is the contingent outcome of struggles among stakeholders. In line with Weber, we identify a process of progressive bureaucratization. This does not only result from the pursuit of organizational manageability, but from a quest for democratic equality and minimization of domination as well. We introduce the concept of self-organizing bureaucratization to highlight how bureaucratization is the unintended and emergent outcome of efforts to increase democratic accountability.

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