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240 ^ POWER

14: The 'Rationalization' of Education and TrainIi«ig

We cannot here analyze the far-reaching and general cultural effects

that the advance of the rational bureaucratic structure of domination, as

such, develops quite independently of the areas in which it takes hold.

Naturally, bureaucracy promotes a 'rationalist' way of life, but the con-

^rcept ofrationalism allows for widely differing contents. Quite generally,

!cne can only say that the bureaucratization of all domination very
strongly furthers the development of 'rational matter-o F-factness' and
■ the personality type of the professional expert. This has far-reaching
ramifications, but only one important element of the "pfoce 5]r"can" be
: briefly indicated here: its effect upon thenature of training and edu-
,; cation.

Educational institutions on the European continent, especially the
institutions of higher learning — the universities, as well as technical
academies, business colleges, gymnasiums, and other middle schools —
are dominated and influenced by the need for the kind of 'education'
that produces a system of special examinations and the trainedexpert-
ness that is increasingly indispensable for modern bureaucracy.

The 'special examination,' in the present sense, was and is found also
outside of bureaucratic structures proper; thus, today it is found in the
'free' professions of medicine and law and in the guild-organized trades.
Expert examinations are neither indispensable to nor concomitant
phenomena of bureaucratization. TheFrench, English, and American
bureaucracies have for a long time foregone such examinations entirely
or to a large extent, for training and service in party organizations have
made up for them.

'Democracy' also takes an ambivalent stand in the face of specialized
examinations, as it does in the face of all the phenomena of bureaucracy
— although democracy itself promotes thesedevelopments. Special exam-
inations, on the one hand, mean or appear to mean a 'selection' of. those
who quahfy from all social strata rather than a rule by notables. On the
other hand, democracy fears that a merit system and educational certifi-
cates will result in a privileged 'caste.' Hence, democracy fights against
the special-examination system.

The special examination is found evenin pre-bureaucratic or semi-
bureaucratic epochs. Indeed, the regular and earliest locus of special
examinations is among prebendally organized dominions. Expectancies

BUREAUCRACY 24I

of prebends, first of church prebends — as in the Islamite Orient and in
the Occidental Middle Ages — then, as was especially the case in China,
secular prebends, are the typical prizes for whichpeople study and are
examined. These examinations, however, have in truth only a partially
specialized and expert character.

"^Thejnodern development ofjull b ureau cratization brings the^steng
of rational , sp ecialized, jnd expert examinations irresistibly to the fore. ,
The civil-service reform gradually imports expert training and special-
ized examinations into the United States.In all other countries this
system also advances, stemming from its main breeding place, Germany.
The increasing bureaucratization of administration enhances the im-
portance of the specialized examination in England. In China, the
attempt to replace the semi-patrimonial and ancient bureaucracy by a
modern bureaucracy brought the expert examination; it took the place
of a former andquite differently structured system of examinations. The
bureaucratization of capitalism, with its demand for expertly trained
technicians, clerks, et cetera, carries such examinations all over the world.
Above all, the development is greatly furthered by the social prestige of
the educational certificates acquired through such specialized examina-
tions. This is all the more the case as...