The Evolution of the Civil Service

Abstract

There are two ways in which the significance of the term “civil service” in Canada and Great Britain differs from its significance in the United States. In the first place, in Canada and Great Britain the term covers only the national service (in Canada the provincial as well as the federal); in the United States it is extended to cover local government. In the other respect, however, the meaning in the United States is more restricted. “Civil service,” writes Professor Leonard D. White in relation to the United States, “is used as synonymous with the merit system: that is, that portion of the public service, selected through examination and possessing status, permanent tenure, and usually a retirement pension. The merit system, more specifically, is the body of law and regulations which confers such status in order to .diminish the effect of politics and patronage, referred to generally as the spoils system,”