Pre-modern bureaucratic burdens

Volume 347 of the Studien zur europäischen Rechtsgeschichte now published

This book offers a rich description of everyday life in an 18th-century administrative body. Examining the Kammerverwaltung in Minden-Ravensberg, Prussia, the study looks at an organisational problem that has always plagued bureaucracy: the tedious nature of the work. Why do people study files, put up with colleagues and accept hierarchies as if they had always existed? Incorporating aspects of systems theory and microhistory, this study draws upon primary sources to show in a clear and analytically precise manner that pre-modern administrations were able to gain acceptance by means of guidelines, procedures, informal agreements and the use of writing. Contrary to prior assumptions within the field of bureaucratic history, a ruler’s pronounced desire or will to govern is not a necessary condition for the triumph of the administrative office.