This volume examines Max Weber¿s pre-World War I thinking about bureaucracy. It suggests that
Weber¿s vision shares common components with the highly efficient Prussian General Staff
military bureaucracy developed by Clausewitz and Helmuth von Moltke. Weber did not believe that
Germany¿s other major institutions the Civil Service industry or the army could deliver
world class performances since he believed that they pursued narrow selfish interests. However
following Weber¿s death in 1920 the model published by his wife Marianne contained none of the
military material about which Weber had written approvingly in the early chapters of Economy
and Society. Glynn Cochrane concludes that Weber¿s model was unlikely to include military
material after the Versailles peace negotiations (in which Weber participated) outlawed the
Prussian General Staff in 1919.
