research paper about civil service

Civil Service Systems and the Challenges of the 21st Century

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• Jos C. N. Raadschelders ,
• Theo A. J. Toonen &
• Frits M. Van der Meer  

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During the past decades’, civil service systems (CSS) have come under intense scrutiny. The role and position of the civil service as core actors in the public sector has been seriously questioned by political pundits and other actors in society and academia. Allegedly, the central position of civil servants in the political-administrative and societal systems is eroding. It is argued that the supposed monopoly of the civil service in public service delivery has gradually broken down. Some visionaries even expect the demise of the civil service as we know it (Demmke 2004; 2005). Perhaps this particular prophecy is grossly exaggerated, sooner reflecting the author’s wish than an empirical fact. Yet, it cannot be denied that, due to a variety of reasons, CSS have increasingly been influenced by a range of internal and external pressures prompted by changes in the institutional context. These internal and environmental changes will be examined in this volume and will be introduced in this chapter. Taken together, these changes supposedly amount to a new, more fragmented order in the public domain generally referred to nowadays as multi-level governance. In this supposed new order, governments and CSS have to find their place. Although there appears to be some common understanding in the scientific community with respect to the nature of these wide-ranging change processes, the analysis of the actual consequences for CSS has received less attention.

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University of Oklahoma, USA

Jos C. N. Raadschelders ( Professor and Henry Bellmon Chair of Public Administration ) ( Professor and Henry Bellmon Chair of Public Administration )

Department of Public Administration, University of Leiden, Netherlands

Theo A. J. Toonen ( Professor ) & Frits M. Van der Meer ( Associate Professor ) ( Professor ) &  ( Associate Professor )

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© 2007 Jos C.N. Raadschelders, Theo A.J. Toonen and Frits M. Van der Meer

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Raadschelders, J.C.N., Toonen, T.A.J., Van der Meer, F.M. (2007). Civil Service Systems and the Challenges of the 21st Century. In: Raadschelders, J.C.N., Toonen, T.A.J., Van der Meer, F.M. (eds) The Civil Service in the 21st Century. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230593084_1

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Article contents

Civil service systems.

• Vainius Smalskys Vainius Smalskys Institute of Public Administration, Mykolas Romeris University, Lithuania
•  and  Jolanta Urbanovič Jolanta Urbanovič Institute of Public Administration, Mykolas Romeris University, Lithuania
• https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.013.160
• Published online: 19 December 2017

Civil service consists of civil servants and their activity when implementing the assigned functions and decisions made by politicians. In other words, it is a system of civil servants who perform the assigned functions of public administration. The corpus of civil servants consists of people who work in central and local public administration institutions. The concept and scope of civil service in a particular country depends on the legal framework that defines the areas of public and private sectors and their relationship. In many countries, civil service consists of an upper level, a mid-level, and civil servants who work for coordinating, independent, and auxiliary institutions. However, the scope of civil service in different countries varies. When analyzing/comparing civil service systems of different countries, researchers often categorize them as Western European, continental European, Anglo-American, Anglo-Saxon, Eastern European, Scandinavian, Mediterranean, Asian, or African.

All European Union member states can be classified into two groups: the career system—dominant in continental Europe, with the prevalence of traditional-hierarchical public administration, rational bureaucracy, and formalized operational rules—and the position system—dominant in Anglo-Saxon countries, with the prevalence of managerial principles, pragmatic administration, and charismatic leadership. Neither of the two models exists in pure form. If features of the career model dominate in the civil service of a country, it is identified as a country with the career CS model; if elements of the position model dominate the country is identified as a country with the position civil service model. An intermediate version of this model, characteristic of a number of countries, is the mixed/hybrid model.

Many civil service researchers claim that in the case of two competing systems of civil service—closed (the career model) and open (the position model)—reforms of the open civil service system win. It has been argued that the organizing principles of the open, result-oriented civil service system (the position model), which is under the influence of “new public management,” will permanently “drive out” the closed, vertically integrated and formal procedure-oriented career model. Scholars argue that civil servants of the future will have to be at ease with more complexity and flexibility. They will have to be comfortable with change, often rapid change. At the same time, they will make more autonomous decisions and be more responsible, accountable, performance-oriented, and subject to new competency and skill requirements.

• civil service
• public administration
• career civil service system
• position civil service system
• mixed civil service system
• new public management
• civil service reform

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Stanford University

Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law is housed in the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies

Stanford Scholar Issues Call to Action to Protect and Reform the U.S. Civil Service

• Nora Sulots

Francis Fukuyama , Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow at Stanford University’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, is leading an effort to protect and reform the U.S. public service. He has organized a  Working Group to Protect and Reform the Civil Service in response to plans elaborated in the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 to strip civil service protections from all federal workers and replace them with political loyalists in a future administration.

The Need for Reform

A group of nonpartisan experts and scholars recently convened at the National Academy of Public Administration to discuss civil service reform. This discussion is critical in light of plans to revive "Schedule F," an executive order that would reclassify many federal positions, remove civil service protections, and allow political loyalty to dictate hiring and firing.

A Better Vision

The Working Group proposes an alternative vision for a more effective federal workforce based on five principles:

Agility: Modernizing outdated systems to adapt to technological, economic, and social changes.

Accountability: Ensuring federal employees remain loyal to the Constitution while being responsive to elected officials.

Collaboration: Leveraging skills and knowledge across various sectors, including private industries and universities.

Outcomes: Focusing on producing real-world results valued by the public and simplifying government procedures.

Capacity: Providing federal workers with the skills, training, and education needed to fulfill their missions effectively.  

Risks of “Schedule F”

Reviving “Schedule F” would undermine these goals, promoting politicization over merit-based results. Government workers might avoid necessary risks and innovation if judged on political loyalty. The Working Group plans to detail further how the federal government can evolve to meet these challenges and become a 21st-century government.

Fukuyama and the Working Group call for support in protecting and reforming the civil service to ensure a competent, non-partisan, and effective federal workforce. Click  here to read their statement in full.

Francis Fukuyama Honored with Lifetime Achievement Award

Reimagining public policy education at stanford and beyond.

Civil Service Exams and Organizational Performance: Evidence from the Pendleton Act

Competitive exams are a standard method for selecting civil servants. Yet, there is limited evidence on their effectiveness. We digitize personnel and financial data to study the impacts of the 1883 Pendleton Act, which mandated exams for some employees in the largest US customs-collection districts. Although the act improved targeted employees’ professional background and reduced turnover, it did not increase cost-effectiveness in customs revenue collection. Moreover, it incentivized hiring in exam-exempted positions, distorting districts’ hierarchical structures. These results illustrate how, by triggering countervailing organizational responses, policies that succeed at improving specific organizational aspects might nevertheless fail to improve overall performance.

We thank Luiza Aires, Lisa Pacheco and Mario Remígio for outstanding research assistance, and Enrique Pérez for help with data collection. We have benefited from the comments of Oriana Bandiera, Brian Beach, Assaf Bernstein, Sandra Black, Nicolás Caramp, Katherine Eriksson, James Feigenbaum, Fred Finan, Robert Gibbons, Michela Giorcelli, Walker Hanlon, Daniel Honig, Rick Hornbeck, Chris Meissner, Andrea Pozas-Loyo, Sarah Quincy, Arman Rezaee, Monica Singhal, Michael Ting, Martin Williams, Chenzi Xu and Noam Yutchmann, as well by seminar participants at Corporación Andina de Fomento, CEPR STEG Workshop, Cornell University, University of California - Riverside, NEUDC, NBER Organizational Economics Fall 2020 Conference, Columbia University, University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy, NYU, and Stanford CASBS. We also benefited from funding from the UC Davis Small Grant in Aid of Research, the Michael Dearing Fellowship in support of Economic History Research, and the Hellman Fellowship program. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research.

MARC RIS BibTeΧ

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• April 8, 2021

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