Q.What are the basic features of bureaucracy?

Weber used bureaucracy as his central illustration of rational-legal authority -- the form of authority he saw as characteristic of the modern world, resting on formally enacted, impersonal rules rather than on custom (traditional authority) or a leader's personal magnetism (charismatic authority). He identified bureaucracy as an organisational form built on a clear separation between an official's public role and their private life, such that behaviour in that public role is governed by explicit, written rules and regulations, and even officials holding real authority do not possess unlimited or arbitrary power. Weber broke this down into five specific, defining characteristics. The first is the functioning of officials: each official operates within a fixed area of official jurisdiction laid down by rules, laws and administrative regulations; regular duties are distributed in a stable, predictable way, and only people with the qualifications needed to perform a given duty are employed to do so; importantly, the office itself continues to exist independently of whichever individual currently occupies it. The second is the hierarchical ordering of positions: offices are organised in a graded hierarchy in which higher officials supervise lower ones, and a person dissatisfied with a lower official's decision has the option of appealing to someone higher up. The third is reliance on written documents: a bureaucratic organisation is managed through files and records that are preserved and accumulated over time, forming part of the public domain and kept separate from any official's personal, private records. The fourth is office management as a distinct, specialised activity: because running a modern bureaucratic office is itself a skilled task, it requires trained personnel rather than being something anyone can do informally. The fifth is cond …