Political Theory

Liberty and Bureaucracy

ABSTRACT

This conference focused on the arguments, both pro and con, respecting the role of bureaucracy and bureaucrats in a free society to better understand both their advantages and limitations. Of particular interest was the important distinctions differentiating private organizations from public ones, and the challenges posed to a society of free and responsible individuals by bureaucratic forms of organization and regulation.

READING LIST

Conference Readings

Mueller, Dennis C., eds. Perspectives on Public Choice, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.

Beard, Charles and William Beard. “The Case for Bureaucracy.” Scribner’s Magazine 93, no. 4 (April 1933): 209-214.

Downs, Anthony. Inside Bureaucracy. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1967.

Goodsell, Charles T. The Case for Bureaucracy: A Public Administration Polemic, 4th Edition. Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, 2003.

Mises, Ludwig von. Bureaucracy. Edited by Bettina Bien Greaves. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, Inc., 2007.

Niskanen, William. Bureaucracy and Representative Government. New York: Aldine-Atherton, 1971.

Tullock, Gordon. The Selected Works of Gordon Tullock, Volume 6: Bureaucracy. Edited by Charles K. Rowley. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, Inc., 2004.

Weber, Max. From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology. Edited by H. H. Gerth and C. Wright Mills. New York City: Oxford University Press, 1946.