Abstract
To convert his research idea into a reality, Stanley Milgram had to design, construct, and then manage an organizational process capable of systematically and efficiently extracting data from nearly a thousand participants. In this first of three theoretical chapters that attempt to explain the Obedience studies, Russell shows that Milgram’s organizational system—a goal-orientated, bureaucratic process that unobtrusively lay hidden behind the participants’ actions—actually played a necessary structural role in the production of the baseline experiment’s high completion rate. This chapter essentially offers a more sociological account of the Obedience studies.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Allen, K. (2004). Max Weber: A critical introduction. London: Pluto Press.
Alvarez, A. (2010). Genocidal crimes: Key ideas in criminology. London: Routledge.
Arendt, H. (1970). On violence. London: Allen Lane the Penguin Press.
Barnard, C. I. (1958). The functions of the executive. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Bartov, O. (2003). Germany’s war and the Holocaust: Disputed histories. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Bauman, Z. (1989). Modernity and the Holocaust. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Blass, T. (2004). The man who shocked the world: The life and legacy of Stanley Milgram. New York: Basic Books.
Blau, P. M., & Meyer, M. W. (1971). Bureaucracy in modern society (2nd ed.). New York: Random House.
Brandt, A. M. (2007). The cigarette century: The rise, fall, and deadly persistence of the product that defined America. New York: Basic books.
Breton, A., & Wintrobe, R. (1986). The bureaucracy of murder revisited. The Journal of Political Economy, 94(5), 905–926.
Brief, A. P., Buttram, R. T., Elliott, J. D., Reizenstein, R. M., & McCline, R. L. (1995). Releasing the beast: A study of compliance with orders to use race as a selection criterion. Journal of Social Issues, 51(3), 177–193.
Browning, C. R. (1995). The path to genocide: Essays on launching the final solution. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Browning, C. R. (2000). Nazi policy, Jewish workers, German killers. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Damico, A. J. (1982). The sociology of justice: Kohlberg and Milgram. Political Theory, 10(3), 409–433.
Darley, J. M. (1995). Constructive and destructive obedience: A taxonomy of principal-agent relationships. Journal of Social Issues, 51(3), 125–154.
Elms, A. C. (1972). Social psychology and social relevance. Boston, MA: Little, Brown.
Elms, A. C. (1995). Obedience in retrospect. Journal of Social Issues, 51(3), 21–31.
Elms, A. C. (2009). Obedience lite. American Psychologist, 64(1), 32–36.
Elms, A. C., & Milgram, S. (1966). Personality characteristics associated with obedience and defiance towards authoritative command. Journal of Experimental Research in Personality, 1(4), 282–289.
Fermaglich, K. (2006). American dreams and Nazi nightmares: Early Holocaust consciousness and liberal America, 1957–1965. Waltham, MA: Brandeis University Press.
Friedrich, C. J. (1946). Constitutional government and democracy: Theory and practice in Europe and America. Boston: Ginn and Company.
Gerth, H. H., & Mills, C. W. (1974). From Max Weber: Essays in sociology. New York: Oxford University Press.
Gregory, R. J. (1995). Bureaucratic ‘psychopathology’ and technocratic governance: Whither responsibility? Hong Kong Public Administration, 4(1), 17–36.
Harré, R. (1979). Social being: A theory for social psychology. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Hilberg, R. (1980). The significance of the Holocaust. In H. Friedlander & S. Milton (Eds.), The Holocaust: Ideology, bureaucracy, and genocide (the San José Papers) (pp. 95–102). Millwood, NY: Kraus International Publications.
Kühl, S. (2013). Organizations: A systems approach. New York: Routledge.
Kühl, S. (2016). Ordinary organizations: Why normal men carried out the Holocaust. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Lipsky, M. (1980). Street-level bureaucracy: Dilemmas of the individual in public services. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
Markusen, E., & Kopf, D. (1995). The Holocaust and strategic bombing: Genocide and total war in the twentieth century. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Meyer, P. (1970, February). If Hitler asked you to electrocute a stranger, would you? Probably. Esquire, 73, 128, 130, 132.
Milgram, S. (1964). Issues in the study of obedience: A reply to Baumrind. American Psychologist, 19(11), 848–852.
Milgram, S. (1965). Some conditions of obedience and disobedience to authority. Human Relations, 18(1), 57–76.
Milgram, S. (1974). Obedience to authority: An experimental view. New York: Harper & Row.
Nicholson, I. (2011). “Shocking” masculinity: Stanley Milgram, “obedience to authority”, and the “crisis of manhood” in Cold War America. Isis, 102(2), 238–268.
Nicholson, I. (2015). The normalization of torment: Producing and managing anguish in Milgram’s “obedience” laboratory. Theory & Psychology, 25(5), 639–656.
Perry, G. (2012). Beyond the shock machine: The untold story of the Milgram obedience experiments. Melbourne: Scribe.
Roth, P. A. (2004). Hearts of darkness: ‘Perpetrator history’ and why there is no why. History of the Human Sciences, 17(2–3), 211–251.
Russell, N. J. C. (2009). Stanley Milgram’s obedience to authority experiments: Towards an understanding of their relevance in explaining aspects of the Nazi Holocaust. (Unpublished Doctoral thesis). Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.
Russell, N. J. C. (2011). Milgram’s obedience to authority experiments: Origins and early evolution. British Journal of Social Psychology, 50(1), 140–162.
Russell, N. J. C., & Gregory, R. J. (2011). Spinning an organizational “web of obligation”? Moral choice in Stanley Milgram’s “obedience” experiments. The American Review of Public Administration, 41(5), 495–518.
Russell, N. J. C., & Gregory, R. J. (2015). The Milgram-Holocaust linkage: Challenging the present consensus. State Crime Journal, 4(2), 128–153.
Sabini, J., & Silver, M. (1982). Moralities of everyday life. New York: Oxford University Press.
Spears, R., & Smith, H. J. (2001). Experiments as politics. Political Psychology, 22(2), 309–330.
Stam, H. J., Lubek, I., & Radtke, H. L. (1998). Repopulating social psychology texts: Disembodied “subjects” and embodied subjectivity. In B. M. Bayer & J. Shotter (Eds.), Reconstructing the psychological subject: Bodies, practices, and technologies (pp. 153–186). London: Sage.
Turk, A. T. (1981). Organizational deviance and political policing. Criminology, 19(2), 231–250.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Russell, N. (2018). A New Theoretical Path: The Emergence of Milgram’s Bureaucratic Machine. In: Understanding Willing Participants, Volume 1. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95816-3_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95816-3_7
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-95815-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-95816-3
eBook Packages: Behavioral Science and PsychologyBehavioral Science and Psychology (R0)