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British Civil Service
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Lecture notes on the British Civil Service
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POLITICS OF THE CIVIL SERVICEPolitical dimensions to the civil service.
Naïve to think that civil servants at a higher level don’t have political opinions.
Civil servants a permanent force in the sense they don’t have to leave office when ministers do.
Ministers have tried to control, manipulate and change the civil service to conform to their agendas.
Brief history: 1854+
‘Wellington’s bastard’ or ‘jobs for the boys’
Offices of state grew in England, and later in the United Kingdom, in haphazard fashion and
limited to War, Tax collection and Law
As elsewhere in European states these offices were secretariats for those holding offices
under the Crown
The system developed in the 18th century, with the rapid extension of the British Empire and
in response to the growth of government and the state resulting from rapid economic
changes: for instance, institutions such as the Office of Works and the Navy Board.
Appointed not on merit or according to a national pattern of recruitment/promotion but by
purchasing offices or by patronage.
Attempts to rationalise/improve the system were ineffectual – for instance, the ‘Honourable’
East India Company established a college, the East India Company College, near London
(1806) to train its administrators
Reason for this innovation was recommendation from its officials based in China about
benefits of the imperial examination system in recruiting state officials or ‘mandarins’
A national civil service recruited by examination was proposed by several liberal
modernisers/reformers
Patronage persisted – the case of Wellington’s bastard
Change: Crimean war, maladministration and the challenges of modern administration
Report by Northcote and Trevelyan in 1854 called to reform the civil service
Proposed permanent, unified and politically neutral civil service
Appointment on merit and ‘generalist’ ethos
N-T reforms gradually implemented
Reformed Civil Service
Civil service model that broadly conforms to what Max Weber described as ‘modern rational
bureaucratic’ power:
Qualified appointees not ‘placemen’
Recruited according to prescribed criteria defined by examinable competences
Public service ethic in delivering government services
Public accountability
Anonymity – ministers take public responsibility for their departments but civil servants
subject to internal responsibility for their actions
Permanence
Non-partisan i.e. above politics: civil servants serve governments and express no political /
party preferences
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