The difficult relationship between electronic bureaucracy and democracy in Portugal’s educational administration

Abstract

This article presents the results of an investigation on the role played by the electronic platforms used by the educational administration in the intensification of some of the bureaucratic dimensions, studied by Max Weber. It creates new problems in the difficult relationship between bureaucracy and democracy. The author illustrates this reality with the example of the electronic platform of teachers’ placement used by Portugal’s educational administration. He concludes that there are new areas for administrative action which escape traditional controls and prevent stakeholders’ participation in decision-making.