The Algocracy as a new ideal type for government organizations: Predictive policing in Berlin as an empirical case

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Lukas Lorenz ◽  
Albert Meijer ◽  
Tino Schuppan
Keyword(s):  
Max Weber ◽  
Ideal Type ◽  
Ideal Types ◽  
Predictive Policing ◽  
The Public ◽  
Government Organizations ◽  
Government Bureaucracy ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Professional Bureaucracy ◽  
Machine Bureaucracy

Motivated by the classic work of Max Weber, this study develops an ideal type to study the transformation of government bureaucracy in the ‘age of algorithms’. We present the new ideal type – the algocracy – and position this vis-à-vis three other ideal types (machine bureaucracy, professional bureaucracy, infocracy). We show that while the infocracy uses technology to improve the machine bureaucracy, the algocracy automates the professional bureaucracy. By reducing and quantifying the uncertainty of decision-making processes in organizations the algocracy rationalizes the exercise of rational-legal authority in the professional bureaucracy. To test the value of the ideal type, we use it to analyze the introduction of a predictive policing system in the Berlin Police. Our empirical analysis confirms the value of the algocracy as a lens to study empirical practices: the study highlights how the KrimPro system conditions professional assessments and centralizes control over complex police processes. This research therefore positions the algocracy in the heart of discussions about the future of the public sector and presents an agenda for further research.

4. The Nation-State

2020 ◽  
pp. 69-85
Author(s):  
Gianfranco Poggi
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Max Weber ◽  
Ideal Type ◽  
The State ◽  
Nation State ◽  
The Public ◽  
State And Society ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Legitimate Violence

This chapter examines how the nation-state came into being and how it became dominant as a political unit. It first presents a general and streamlined portrait of the state—a concept that sociologists inspired by Max Weber might call an ideal type. In particular, it considers some of the characteristics of a nation-state, including monopoly of legitimate violence, territoriality, sovereignty, plurality, and relation to the population. The chapter proceeds by discussing a more expansive concept of the nation-state, taking into account the role of law, centralized organization, the distinction between state and society, religion and the market, the public sphere, the burden of conflict, and citizenship and nation. The chapter also describes five paths in state formation and concludes with an assessment of three main phases which different European states have followed in somewhat varying sequences: consolidation of rule, rationalization of rule, and expansion of rule.

Melancholy

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julius Rubin
Keyword(s):  
Religious Experience ◽  
Max Weber ◽  
Ideal Type ◽  
Religious Ethics ◽  
Lived Religion ◽  
Ideal Types ◽  
Experience Emotion ◽  
The Ideal

Max Weber's concept of religious ethos proves important to the study of religion and emotion. Through the concept of religious ethos, Weber developed a structural phenomenology of religious experience, emotion, personality, and life-order. In the spirit of Max Weber, this article investigates a variety of religious ethics and their affinity with melancholy. These ethics include inner-worldly asceticism (Protestant evangelical pietism), other-worldly asceticism (Christian monasticism), and inner-worldly mysticism (apophaticism and quietism among Christian mystics, in Hasidism, and in Sufism). The discussion proceeds using Weber's concept of the ideal type, where each religious ethos is articulated with clarity and precision, in a logically consistent form that accentuates or exaggerates certain aspects of religious experience and expression. In this manner, ideal types create “logical utopias” that are not intended realistically to describe or to depict, photographically, the lived religion of peoples in concrete settings.

4. The nation-state

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gianfranco Poggi
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Max Weber ◽  
Ideal Type ◽  
The State ◽  
Nation State ◽  
The Public ◽  
State And Society ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Legitimate Violence

This chapter examines how the nation-state came into being and how it became dominant as a political unit. It first presents a general and streamlined portrait of the state — a concept that sociologists inspired by Max Weber might call an ideal type. In particular, it considers some of the characteristics of a nation-state, including monopoly of legitimate violence, territoriality, sovereignty, plurality, and relation to the population. The chapter proceeds by discussing a more expansive concept of the nation-state, taking into account the role of law, centralized organization, the distinction between state and society, religion and the market, the public sphere, the burden of conflict, and citizenship and nation. The chapter also describes five paths in state formation and concludes with an assessment of three main phases which different European states have followed in somewhat varying sequences: consolidation of rule, rationalization of rule, and expansion of rule.

scholarly journals A Weberian Study of Small, Prosperous Democracies

SAGE Open ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 215824401668068
Author(s):  
Pertti Ahonen
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Max Weber ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Ideal Type ◽  
Social Dimension ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Political Dimension ◽  
Economic Dimension ◽  
Ideal Types ◽  
Fiscal Austerity

Max Weber constructed ideal types highlighting economic, social, political, or other values in objects of inquiry to utilize these ideal types in empirical studies. In this article, Weber’s ideal type, the ideal type of Herrschaft—“domination”—is adapted first to examine New Zealand, and using New Zealand as baseline to next examine Finland. The asymmetric comparative design is applied along three dimensions of domination. In an economic dimension, New Zealand highlights ways of countering threats of volatility and stagnation by means of retrenchment and fiscal austerity—characteristics also found in Finland. In a continuum from residual welfare for the worst-off to universal welfare for all in the social dimension, New Zealand is situated closer to the former and Finland the latter end. In the political dimension, dismantling concentrations of political power but retaining capacity at the “center of government” receives emphasis in New Zealand, and counterparts can be also found in Finland.

Conclusion

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul D. Webb ◽  
Thomas Poguntke ◽  
Susan E. Scarrow
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Research ◽  
Ideal Type ◽  
Representative Democracy ◽  
Party Organization ◽  
Ideal Types ◽  
Practical Guide ◽  
Organizational Patterns ◽  
Key Dimensions ◽  
Analytical Frameworks ◽  
The Ideal

This chapter briefly recaps the findings of this volume, then addresses more general questions concerning the types of organizational patterns that researchers should expect to find, and the most fruitful approaches to understanding the origins and implications of those patterns. The authors review the PPDB data in order to assess the empirical applicability of various well-known ideal-types of parties. They find that only a minority of the cases in the dataset fit into one of these ideal-type categories—even when the bar is set low for such classification. It is argued that the ideal-type approach, while it has its merits, is less useful as a practical guide for empirical research than analytical frameworks based on the key dimensions of party organization—resources, structures, and representational strategies. The chapter closes by emphasizing the very real consequences that the organizational choices made by parties can have for representative democracy.

scholarly journals Application of the watershed sustainability index in the Piranhas-Açu watershed

Water Policy ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 622-640
Author(s):  
D. D. Costa e Silva ◽  
H. M. L. Chaves ◽  
W. F. Curi ◽  
J. G. V. Baracuhy ◽  
T. P. S. Cunha
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Water Resources ◽  
Public Participation ◽  
Analysis Method ◽  
Resources Management ◽  
The Public ◽  
Sustainability Index ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Semi Arid Region ◽  
Brazilian Northeast

Abstract The current worldwide water resources issue is one of the crucial matters to overcome obstacles to sustainable development. This problem, formerly tackled in a sectored manner, is now pointing towards an analysis directed to treating the watershed as a management unit, with regards to all dimensions of knowledge and, especially, to the public participation in the decision-making processes. As an alternative to measure its performance, it has been sought out to develop indexes aimed to measure its sustainability, but there is still a lack of the use of composed efficient methodologies that also enable public participation in decision-making. This research presents a methodology comprising 15 indexes for the calculation of the Watershed Sustainability Index (WSI), followed by the application of the PROMETHEE multi-criteria analysis method and the COPELAND multi-decision-maker method. The methodology was applied to evaluate the performance of subwatersheds of the Piranhas-Açu watershed, located in the Brazilian northeast semi-arid region. The performance ordering, obtained through the application of the methods, emphasizes that subwatersheds' performances are uneven. It can be noticed that the subwatersheds' performances are still far from ideal in relation to water resources management, even in the ones that displayed satisfactory index levels.

Re-envisioning organizational complexity using a multiple perspectives model

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Choon Bae (Paul) Yoo
Keyword(s):  
Strategic Alliances ◽  
Business Partnerships ◽  
Multiple Perspectives ◽  
Multiple Stakeholders ◽  
Organizational Complexity ◽  
Government Organizations ◽  
Stakeholder Perspectives ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Effective Decision Making ◽  
Perspective Model

Abstract Organizations are now more complex and require collaboration to function effectively across multiple stakeholders. Consequently, they need to be familiar with collaborative projects and participate consciously in shared processes for the accomplishment of particular goals. In order to support and strengthen business partnerships, organizations could use a model based on a multi-perspective approach, as a way of visualizing effective decision-making processes and gaining an understanding regarding how they can establish and maintain stable relationships with other organizations and strategic alliances. The benefits of the new multi-perspective model could be utilized for the collaboration of multiple stakeholders and to drive future organizational change. This study presents a case study which explores the use of a multiple perspective framework in Australian Government Organizations. The results from this study suggest that a multi-perspective model may be used to address organizational complexity through the holistic integration of stakeholder perspectives and sustained knowledge flow.

Max Weber as an Economist: Revisiting Max Weber’s Legacy 100 Years after His Passing

2020 ◽  
Vol 140 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-222
Author(s):  
Marek Louzek
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Max Weber ◽  
Social Scientist ◽  
Ideal Type ◽  
Methodological Individualism ◽  
The Third ◽  
Value Neutrality ◽  
The Ideal

This article presents Max Weber as an economist and as a social scientist. Weber’s relations to economics, philosophy and sociology are discussed. Max Weber has more in common with economists than it might seem at first sight. His principle of value neutrality has become the foundation of the methodology of social sciences, including economics. The second point shared by Max Weber with standard economics is methodological individualism. The third point which a modern economist can learn from Max Weber is the concept of the ideal type.

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