The birth of modern bureaucracy Balzac and the “duped public”

If the law holds a special place in Balzac’s work, this is through the description of human relationships that it limits or develops. It explains and even drives plot. It is a law of interpersonal relations: of property, inheritance debt, marriage, and contracts. However, from 1837, Balzac described bureaucracy in very contemporary terms, opening the way to a sociology of organizations: the birth of the administrative system is described through its actors.