365 Max Weber’s ideal-types. The most important criteria in the »rational bureaucracy» are the discharge of official duties on the basis of general rules, a well developed official hierachy and fixed, functionally delimited areas of competence. The most frequently used metht^d of analysis has been to apply this ideal-type exclusively and to couple it to the process-related concept »bureaucratization». By also applying the less well-known ideal-type for an »estatecharacterized administration» in pre-bureaucratic times, I obtain a better defined spectrumfor analysis. The ideal-type includes, for instance, the criterion for the officials as independent persons from higher ranks, a division of the administration through the competition of ciffice holders in terms of authority and revenue, as well as the absence of a concept of discipline. The period of investigation is primarily the Age of Liberty. The local and regional administration which is the focus of the dissertation had already, in its most important aspects, developed during the 17th century, and especially during the Age of Caroline absolutism. A particular reason for studying the Age of Liberty is the dominant role played by the Riksdag (parliament) in political life. Did this affect the structure of the administration and the practice of tax collection? A practical reason for my choice of chronological period is my previous participation in the Scandinavian research project »Central Power and Local Community - the Decision-making Process in the Eighteenth Century». In this context I wrote a survey of the Swedish administration published in Administrasjon i Norden på 1700-talet (with an English summary) (1985). My reason for slightly exceeding the time limits of the Age of Liberty is that the years of dearth at the beginning of the 1770’s have been chosen as a case study. The years of famine occurred in 1772-73 and one needs to follow how the repayment of tax arrears and grain allocated for emergency distribution functioned. In chapter 3, whose subject is the local officials as a group, the chronological limits have, in some respects, been extended to 1809, that is, the chapter encompasses both the Age of Liberty and the Gustavian era. The geographical areas investigated vary from chapter to chapter. On the question of recruitment of kronofogdar (bailiffs), a selection of bailiwicks from the entire country has been made. In chapters 5 and 6, Säter bailiwick in Kopparberg county and the bailiwick of Västernärke in Örebro county, both located in central Sweden, are investigated. For chapter 7 on the inspection trips of justitiekanslern (the Attcirney-General), a number of counties in southern and central Sweden have been investigated. A number of different types of source material have been used. In chapter 3, where the local officials are investigated as a professional and social group, applications for appointment as bailiff, population registers, inventories and cadastres have been used in addition to biographical literature. Published regu-
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