Question 1: Weber saw rationalisation as an “iron cage” that increasingly dominated all social life. Discuss what he means by this, and how rationalisation shapes bureaucracies.
问题1：韦伯将理性化视为一个越来越主导所有社会生活的“铁笼子”。讨论他的意思，以及合理化如何塑造官僚机构。
In reference to Weber, as societies developed, particularly the western societies, certain set of universal laws, regulations and rules were established upon which individuals in such societies made decisions. In other words, from Weber’s perspective, the society, in a bid to achieve advantages such as improved efficiency formulated and enacts a framework that individuals in such societies rely on to make rational decisions. Whereas this is the case, the dependence on rationalisation often leads to establishment of an “iron cage”, whereby individuals depend on the existing rational framework to make decisions rather than on their traditions and values. In reference to Holmes, Hughes and Julian (2015), whereas the laws, rules and regulations under rationalisation could help select the most effective way of accomplishing a particular goal, they are not based in any way on customary, religious or even traditional authority but rather are based on legal-rational authority that is unquestionable. Therefore, since rationalisation has strict rules that cannot be violated or questions when instituted within a particular society, it traps the people living or those who are born in such as society and as such, they cannot make their decision based on anything else apart from the acceptable framework within this society (Morrissette 2017). For example, those who are born in a society where leaders are chosen through a “rational system” called elections cannot ascend to power expect through following all the laid out rules, that is, through elections. Thus, as rationalisation established itself within a society, it controlled every sphere of social lives, making it difficult for individuals to escape from such control.
关于韦伯，随着社会的发展，特别是西方社会的发展，某些普遍性的法律、法规和规则已经确立，这些社会中的个人可以根据这些法律、法规和规则做出决定。换言之，从韦伯的角度来看，社会为了实现提高效率等优势，制定并实施了一个框架，这些社会中的个人可以依靠该框架做出理性决策。尽管如此，对理性化的依赖往往导致“铁笼”的建立，个人依靠现有的理性框架来做出决策，而不是依靠自己的传统和价值观。参考Holmes、Hughes和Julian（2015），虽然合理化的法律、规则和条例有助于选择实现特定目标的最有效方式，但这些法律、规则和条例并非以习俗、宗教甚至传统权威为基础，而是以毫无疑问的法律理性权威为基础。因此，由于合理化有严格的规则，在特定社会中实施时不得违反或质疑，因此它会困住生活在这样一个社会中的人或出生在这样一个社会中的人，因此，他们不能基于这个社会中可接受的框架之外的任何其他因素做出决策（Morrissette 2017）。例如，那些出生在一个通过所谓选举的“理性制度”选出领导人的社会中的人，无法通过遵守所有既定规则（即通过选举）而获得权力。因此，随着理性化在社会中的确立，它控制着社会生活的各个领域，使个人难以摆脱这种控制。
One of the critical aspects of rationalisation is the fact that it has a significant impact on bureaucracy. To begin, rationalisation plays a critical role in determining how decisions are made within a bureaucracy mainly by limiting the ability of individuals to make independent choices and decisions. According to Atalay (2007), rationalisation provides bureaucracies with the power to limit the autonomy of individuals under their authority, thus safeguarding themselves against the limitations of partial and unpredictable nature of individual decision-making. In this regard, bureaucracies argue that from a rational point of view, giving individuals the autonomy to make decisions is likely to introduced flaws in the entire decision-making processes, thus undermining efficiency and as such, the desired results or goals.
合理化的一个关键方面是，它对官僚主义有重大影响。首先，合理化在决定官僚机构内决策方式方面起着关键作用，主要是通过限制个人做出独立选择和决策的能力。根据Atalay（2007年）的说法，合理化为官僚机构提供了限制个人在其职权范围内自治的权力，从而保护自己免受个人决策的局部性和不可预测性的限制。在这方面，官僚机构认为，从理性的角度来看，给予个人决策的自主权可能会在整个决策过程中引入缺陷，从而破坏效率以及预期的结果或目标。
Apart from limiting the individual autonomy within a bureaucracy, there is a need to observe that rationalisation has a significant influence on how bureaucracies are organised particularly with respect to different layers of authority. In their analysis on the relationship between a bureaucracy and rationalisation, Thompson and McHugh (2009) observe that it is difficult for bureaucracy to function without adherence to specific laid down procedures, hierarchy and expertise. In other words, the dictates of rationalisation that stipulates that in order to make sound decisions and promote efficiency, there is a need to follow specific decision-making framework, are inherent in a bureaucratic framework whereby efficiency and better decisions are only achieved if a certain framework is followed such as going through different layers of a hierarchy. For example, in a bureaucratic organisation, every channel of authority must be followed when making a decision otherwise it will be rendered invalid for failing to follow a “rational hierarchical” structure.
除了限制官僚机构内部的个人自主权外，还需要注意，合理化对官僚机构的组织方式有重大影响，特别是在不同的权力层次上。Thompson和McHugh（2009）在分析官僚机构与合理化之间的关系时指出，如果不遵守具体规定的程序、层级和专业知识，官僚机构很难发挥作用。换言之，合理化的要求规定，为了做出正确的决策和提高效率，需要遵循特定的决策框架，在官僚架构中，效率和更好的决策只有在遵循某个架构（如通过不同层次的层级）的情况下才能实现。例如，在一个官僚组织中，在做出决策时必须遵循每一个权力渠道，否则，决策将因未能遵循“合理的层级”结构而无效。