Abstract

AbstractThe German system of public sector employment (including civil servants and public employees) qualifies as a classical European continental civil service model moulded in traditional forms of a Weberian bureaucracy. Its features include a career-based employment system with entry based on levels of formal qualification. Coordinated by legal frames and centralised collective bargaining, the civil service is, at the same time, decentralised and flexible enough to accommodate regional differences and societal changes. In comparison, the civil service system stands out for its high degrees of professionalism and legal fairness with low levels of corruption or cronyism.

Highlights

  • Designed as a private-law employment status, the labor conditions of public employees are the result of collective bargaining between government and labour representatives

  • The remarkable stability and continuity of the German civil service is owed largely to the constitutionally enshrined ‘fundamental principles’, which govern the status of civil servants nationwide

  • The established public employment system has proven relatively impervious to external pressure from market/efficiency-driven reform measures in the wake of the new public management movement

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Summary

Introduction

The term ‘civil service’ denotes more than the body of personnel in the employ of government. It refers to a set of rules and institutional arrangements embedded in political and administrative traditions and cultures. It is this wider concept of the German civil service and public employment system that we refer to in this chapter. Our chapter addresses the total public sector workforce regardless of the level of government (federal, state or local) or employment status (governed by public or private law). We are in part being untrue to the German usage of the term ‘civil service’ (Beamtentum), which is reserved for holders of a ‘civil servant’ status (Beamte) governed by public law (see below for further details). In the following we refer to paid public sector personnel generally, including civil servants and public employees at the federal, state and local levels. For the sake of clarity and consistency, we confine ourselves in what follows, unless otherwise stated, to the administrative core of the civil service, which is trusted with non-technical tasks in the executive apparatus of government

Civil Service Systems Compared
The Weberian
Steering and
Recruitment and Qualification
Compensation Schemes and Benefits
The German Civil Service at the Interface Between Politics and Administration
How the German Civil Service Has Changed or Is Supposed to Change
Findings
Lessons Learned and Concluding Thoughts
Full Text
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