The British Civil Service in Transition

Abstract

It must be confessed that, outside the inner circles of the administration, people in Great Britain show little interest in their civil service. It is taken for granted by the majority and used as an Aunt Sally by a considerable minority to whom the merest suspicion of that much overworked epithet, “bureaucrat,” acts as a red rag to a bull. Much wider interest in the British civil service has, in fact, been shown in the United States, whence the most illuminating writings on the subject have almost invariably emanated. For this reason, the present writer believes that there must be many members of the American Political Science Association who will be interested in a brief survey of civil service development, with particular reference to the changes at present in hand. It might be as well to point out that this essay is written with all the prejudices of a writer in Britain, e.g., with regard to the importance of open competitive recruitment and a quite different approach to veteran preference; but this in itself may add something to the article's interest.