This is a model of a pure hierarchy which oversees a given number of productive units. Its aim is to minimize costs, which are the sum of wage costs and costs caused by delays in decision making. The advantage of the model is that it permits the calculation of an optimum formal structure of the hierarchy in terms of the span of control at different levels. The general result is that spans of control should increase as one goes down the levels of the hierarchy. However, when time savings become more and wage costs less important, the difference between the optimum spans of control shrinks; in the limit, when wage costs are not considered at all, they become equal. These results support the findings of some empirical studies: there is evidence for increasing spans of control in business organizations, while in armies, where cost considerations are secondary, spans of control tend to be more uniform.organizational design, decision making, span of control

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Blogging, the publication of on-line diaries with links to other Web sites, is a recent activity and yet is already producing its celebrities. The author analyzes diary entries posted over five years by one master blogger, and his relations with his readers, to try to originate preliminary hypotheses on the politics of blogging. Observation of blogging in one of its most glamorous manifestations suggests that the new emancipation achieved by self-representation on the World Wide Web may be associated with what Scott Lash has called “the politics of melancholy,” here characterized by preference for virtual reality, formation of a cult-like community, and political passivity. Résumé : Le blogage, qui consiste à afficher son journal personnel en ligne en y incluant des liens vers des sites connexes, est une activité récente et pourtant elle a déjà ses célébrités. L’auteur analyse les entrées de journal d’un maître bloggeur sur une durée de cinq ans ainsi que ses rapports avec ses lecteurs, en vue de développer des hypothèses préliminaires sur la politique du blogage. L’observation du blogage dans une de ses manifestations les plus attrayantes suggère que l’on peut associer la nouvelle émancipation que permet la représentation de soi sur le Web à ce que Scott Lash appelle « la politique de la mélancolie », caractérisée ici par une préférence pour la réalité virtuelle, la formation d’une communauté ressemblant à un culte et la passivité politique.

This study provides a `positive' definition of the `anti-system party' as a party seeking a standard of perfection derived from its commitment to an imaginary rather than real civil society. The example of Israel's `New Force' party is then discussed.