This thesis is concerned with the career of a concept within
a t radi t ion of thought which combines social and p o l i t ica l theory and
revolutionary ideology. The concept is 1 bureaucracy' ; the t radi t ion
is revolutionary Marxism. The thesis attempts to explore the role and
importance of the concept in the writings of several writers who stand
at central and strategic points in the development of Marxist ref lect ion
on bureaucracy, and to discuss the adequacy and u t i l i t y of these
wr i ters' analyses of what they take ' bureaucracy1 to be.
Marxists were not the only thinkers, nor were they the
f i r s t , to discuss the role of bureaucracy in comtemporary and future
societies. The thesis has therefore considered the thoughts of
a number of pre- and non-Marxists. In par t icular , the writings
of two thinkers who gave special attention to the social and
p o l i t ic a l consequences of administrative imperatives - Henri Saint-Simon
and Max Weber - have proved par t icular ly illuminating. Saint-Simon
bequeathed to, or at least shared with Marxists, many important
ideas and predictions which relate to our theme. Weber was both
profoundly influenced by Marxist social theory, and, with regard to
bureaucracy, profoundly c r i t ic a l of revolutionary Marxism. In this
century the theories and prophecies of both wr i ters, as of Marxists
themselves, have been put to test.
The ideas discussed here have been concerned with, and
greatly affected and at times challenged by, economic, social and
p o l i t ica l developments in the past two centuries, and in par t icular
by the course and fate of the f i r s t successful Marxist-led revolution,
the Russian Revolution of 1917. The thesis has sought to take these
developments, and thei r practical and theoretical consequences,
into account
