This paper uses a personal narrative format to recount an emeritus professor of public administration’s ongoing study of how social class and socioeconomic origins shape various aspects of bureaucracy, with special emphasis on the sorting function of formal education and its subsequent effects on personnel selection. Following an account of his family background, he summarizes his recent findings on the relationship between class and administration, followed by a sampling of remedies he proposes for bringing socioeconomic issues, especially the effects of inherited social, financial, and cultural capital, into the mainstream of our discipline. The author argues that by implementing these changes, we will not only prove we are the “cutting edge” enterprise we claim to be, but our actions will provoke other fields to enact similar democratic and egalitarian reforms.
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