The Passage of the Civil Service Reforms Act of 1978, and the Business and the Union: A Non-Zero Sum Game

Abstract

The paper seeks to use non-zero sum bargaining theory to analyze the Civil Service Reforms Act of 1978. President Carter believed that business practices can be used in federal bureaucracy to improve the efficiency and productivity in the government. The Carter Administration sought very actively the cooperation of the business and the labor union to pass the reforms. Both the labor union and the business groups bargained intensely to preserve and promote their interests in the reforms. Based on archival data from the President Jimmy Carter Library, this paper analyzes the bargaining position of the labor union and the business groups from the non-zero sum game theory to offer a different perspective on the passage of the Civil Service Reforms Act of 1978.