Bureaucratization

Abstract

Bureaucracy, or bureaucratization, refers to routinized, deper-sonalized, and dispersed processes devoted to the execution of a variety of administrative tasks, and to the regulation and assessment of these tasks. Within a bureaucratic system of governance, authority is dispersed and disconnected from ownership or physical production. Notions of a “bureaucratic manhood,” or a “bureaucratic team player,” slowly began to appear in U.S. society as bureaucratic systems of governance and administration emerged after 1830. This development enabled men to articulate masculine power and authority out-side the contexts of craft skills (which were slowly displaced by industrialization after 1830) and ownership and entrepreneurial control (which were transformed by corporatization after 1880). In addition, a mode of bureaucratic manhood gained ground after 1880 that linked masculinity to the exercise