Petitions and Prayers: A Method for the Content Analysis of Persuasive Appeals

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Abstract
This paper is concerned with certain ideas about bureaucracy presented by Weber and qualified and expanded upon by Blau. Based upon the information gathered in a year-long participant observation study of “The Single Men's Unit” of a public welfare department from February 1959 to February 1960, during which time he was employed as a “social caseworker,” the author has introduced the notion of “symbolic bureaucracy.” The discussion, which is centered around this concept, seriously questions whether Blau's “unofficial change” and “adjustive development” will suffice to save Weber. It seems more likely to the author that the introduction of the concept of unofficial change, if it serves to rescue Weber's “ideal type,” succeeds in doing so only at the serious risk of losing bureaucracy.

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