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Sociology Optional PYQ Solutions · Model answer

Do you agree with Max Weber’s idea that bureaucracy has the potential to become an iron cage? Justify your answer.

  • UPSC 2021
  • Sociological Thinkers

Max Weber praised bureaucracy's technical superiority: precision, speed, continuity. He also feared that rationalisation would harden into a stahlhartes Gehäuse. Talcott Parsons translated this as "iron cage" in 1930, though Peter Baehr (2001) argued "shell as hard as steel" is closer: a casing people come to inhabit, not merely a prison. The fear is justified…

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What the full answer covers

  • Why the potential is real
  • Why the cage is not inevitable
  • Conclusion

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