Open access
BUREAUCRACY AND VIOLENCE
Karol CHROBAK1
Present and the Coming Challenges
Publication language: English
Journal article
Transformations No. 3-4 (98-99) 2018, Publication date: 8 December 2018
Keywords: bureaucracy, violence, human dignity, humanization
Abstract The essay focuses on the relationship in which the bureaucracy remains to the phenomenon of violence. These relations are essential for a better understanding of the condition of modern democratic institutions, as the functioning of the latter today is closely dependent on the efficient functioning of the bureaucratic apparatus. These relationships are primarily positive, which means that the bureaucracy generates or encourages violence. However, these relations may also have negative character, which should be understood as limiting the field of possible abuse. First of all, the history of the concept of bureaucracy will be reconstructed. On the one hand, the Enlightenment of universalism sees in the bureaucratic mechanism an effective tool that guarantees a fair distribution of rights and obligations. On the other hand, along with the birth of romantic individualism, the bureaucracy acquires a pejorative significance, as a machine blind for the needs of the subject, which forces a man into a completely foreign world of regulations. In this negative sense, the bureaucracy is considered to be a tool of social oppression, as it is a source of violence directly affecting human dignity. Violation of human dignity is one of three forms of violence I distinguish. Both approaches are reflected in the moral assessment of bureaucracy. Romantic individualism responds negatively to it as a tool for the objectification of man, that is, for not treating them as a unique individual, but only as a representative of a broader category. In turn, following the Enlightenment tradition, the bureaucracy can be treated as a tool conducive to social justice. Referring, for example, to the redistribution of goods, I argue that only impersonal bureaucratic structures can provide help for the poorest citizens, without resulting in their case in an inferiority feeling, and thus not violating their sense of personal dignity.
Faculty of Social Sciences, Warsaw University of Life Sciences
E-mail: karol_chrobak@sggw.pl