This book examines Max Weber's understanding of bureaucracy by applying his ideas to the development of officialdom from the ninth century to the present in six European countries. It shows that Weber's scorecard has a mixed record, especially weak in its account of the development of monocracy and formalism.

Edward C. Page is Sidney and Beatrice Webb Professor of Public Policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science, having previously held positions at the University of Strathclyde and the University of Hull. He is the co-editor, with Steven J. Balla and Martin Lodge, of The Oxford Handbook of Classics in Public Policy and Administration (OUP 2015) and author of Policy Without Politicians: Bureaucratic Influence in Comparative Perspective (OUP 2012).