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This article provides information about the administered society as a salient feature of political sociology of critical theory:
A major feature of the political sociology of critical theory is the notion of an administered society. Weber had argued that forces of rationality and rationalisation were becoming increasingly dominant in western society.
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Rather than traditional or charismatic forces being dominant in social organisation, Weber argued that calculation, accounting, considered decision-making, and guided social action by careful examination of how means could be used to accomplish particular ends were forms that had become more forceful in western society. These forces are clearest in economics, business, and formal organisations, but Weber argued that these same forces made their effects felt in politics, education, and even the arts.
Critical theorists added these ideas of Weber on bureaucracy, rationalisation, and administration to the Marxian ideas of exchange and commodification. While Marx was primarily concerned with the economic sphere, the critical theorists extended their analysis to the political and social sphere, combining the ideas of exchange and administered society.
The result was a view that capitalism and the society associated with it “was a totalising system which attempted to penetrate every area of life from self-constitution to interpersonal relations to education.” These totalising processes were leading to the destruction of “individuality and particularity”. One form this took was an economic analysis which argued that capitalism had been transformed from uncontrolled and relatively free markets to a form of state capitalism. While Marx and some earlier economists may have foreseen some aspects of this, they did not foresee the manner in which the state would intervene in the economic sphere.
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Friedrich Pollock, one of the economists associated with the Frankfurt School, developed a model of state capitalism, whereby “the state acquires power over money and credit, and regulates production and prices. Furthermore, management becomes separate from ownership”. While these critical theorists may have overestimated the role of the state in economics, and underestimated the vibrancy of capitalism as an economic system, theories of this sort have contributed to our understanding of capitalism and how it evolves. There is a strong political aspect to the economic sphere and many aspects of the economy are administered.