Abstract
This article looks at some of the ambiguities in the commonly‐used phrase‘career service’ and considers what the essential elements of a true career service might be. It raises questions about civil service organization that may interest the reformist practitioner. It draws attention to an under‐researched field (British textbooks are virtually silent on the subject of promotion) that deserves further academic study. British arrangements are placed in a comparative perspective. Until recently it could be said that the British civil service better resembled the ideal of a career service than that of any other western democracy. As a result of Thatcherite changes, we may in future look more like the rest of Europe.
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