Bureaucracy as a Vocation: Governmentality and administration in nineteenth‐century Britain

This paper focuses upon ethical conduct and liberal mentalities of government in the context of the historical sociology of administrative expertise in nineteenth century Britain. After a brief consideration of theories of moral regulation, the paper pursues, by way of a discussion of the government of India and of the famous Northcote‐Trevelyan Report on the Civil Service, the issue of the establishment of an appropriate bureaucratic persona in the nineteenth century.