Bureaucratic officials and political leader: an unexpected event

I have not enormous experience as I do not deal with bureaucracy too much.Whatever experience I have gathered from dealing with bureaucracy, one of them have really made me thoughtful of thinking about our bureaucracy. I gonna share this experience here.

To get admitted into the university, I was supposed to submit a testimonial from my college from where I have passed. That’s why I went to my college to pick it up.According to rules, an application has to be written to the principal of the college to get the testimonial. As usually, I had written an application seeking for it and went to the principal office for a signature to approve it.I gave my application to the assistant of the principal to have a signature of the principal on it.On that time,the principal were going to star a meeting with some educationalist inside his office. The assistant of the principal entered into the office room with my application form,but he was ordered to come after half and one hour as he( the principal) was busied with the meeting by then. Getting out the office room,the assistant informed me that I have to wait for minimum one and half hour to have the signature. I decided to wait till the meeting had been ended About half an hour later,one of my friend, who is the nieces of local MP (Member of Parliament) came with same application. The assistant knew my friend that he is the nieces of the local MP.After seeing him,the assistant rushed to the principal and informed about my friend. Instantly our principal gave permission to bring the application of my friend and gave a signature on it.I became astonished seeing this though my application was also signatured with my friend’s one.I was told to wait half an hour but it was not told to my friend because he is a relative of the MP.

However, when we came to the computer operator of the office to print our testimonial out.By this time,he was doing another tasks of other students.As soon as he saw my friend, the nieces of our local MP,instantly he stopped all his work at his hand and printed out the testimonial of my friend as well as me.I and also the students who were present at the spot became astonished. I am sure I migh have told to wait until the tasks at his hand had been ended.

Now I would like to relate the behaviour of both the Principal and the computer operator with Weber’s idea of bureaucracy. In his idea of ideal form of bureaucracy, Weber talked about the position of bureaucratic officials in an institution He referred office holding as a vocation of every bureaucratic official. It requires a prescribed course of training for along period of time and having examinating which are prerequisite for employment. Thus it is clear that every official get appointed in an institution by their merit and ability. Obviously they should not be loyal to any political leader.But from the behavior of both the principal of the college and the operator, can we say that both of them have taken offices holding as vocation?

According to Weber’s perspective of bureaucratic official’s position both the principal and the computer operator must have been appointed by an authority, they are not elected. So they must be accountable to the authority, not to any patron or political leaders. But the activities of both the principal and operator didn’t prove that they are accountable to the political leader rather than the authority?

Besides Weber pointed out that every official should work for the people for whom he is appointed.He should not be feared of being fired for failing to please a patron. But in this case the principal and the office staff to be feared of being fired for failing the political leader(MP).On the other hand every official get promotion to a more responsible position according to his experience and ability. But the behavior of the operator reflects the loyalty of him to the political leader(MP).Question can be asked, is he appointed to this position by the influence of MP? Does he want to be promoted to a better position by convencing the political leader?

I don’t know whether the activities of the both person mentioned in the incident serve the Weber’s idea of the position of the bureaucratic official. I would like to vested it upon the reader to judge it.