Higher Civil Service Research Articles

The Russian Higher Civil Service on the Eve of the "Great Reforms"

The Russian Higher Civil Service on the Eve of the "Great Reforms"

Unrepresentative Bureaucracy

Sociological concern with the social and educational origins of higher civil servants is interpreted on the basis of various explicit and implicit theses guiding such studies. The author shows that all such approaches rest on two unexamined assumptions- that pre-occupational socialization is vital for the later attitudes of higher civil servants and that it is possible to modify the social and educational origins of this group. Presenting comparative information and historical data on the British situation to show that such modification is unlikely without a radical transformation of values guiding a public bureaucracy, the author argues that research on organizational structures and on the influence of pre-occupational and post-occupational experience are essential for a sound discussion of the theses outlined, and for any future discussions of the responsiveness of public bureaucracies.

A framework for comparative research on the political role of higher civil servants

A framework for comparative research on the political role of higher civil servants

From a study of higher civil servants in Ontario

From a study of higher civil servants in Ontario

Politics and the Career Mobility of Bureaucrats

Career mobility is conceptualized in terms of the amount and bias of organizational, occupational, vertical and geographical movement. An operational measure is offered for the amount of mobility (not the bias) which permits comparative generalizations to be made about officials based on simple sampling procedures. For illustrative purposes, the amount of organizational mobility is measured for two samples of federal officials: David T. Stanley's sample (N = 557) of higher civil servants and a sample (N = 300) of foreign affairs officials. Several dichotomous background variables are included for both samples of officials including: age, rank, and education. Varying background characteristics is found to make only a small mobility difference for higher civil servants and a much greater difference for foreign affairs officials. Several speculations are offered to explain the political significance of the empirical findings, and a comparative typology of career mobility is developed.

A Note on the Social Class Composition of the Civil Service, 1789-1837

Previous articleNext article No AccessResearch NotesA Note on the Social Class Composition of the Civil Service, 1789-1837David H. RosenbloomDavid H. Rosenbloom Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Polity Volume 5, Number 1Autumn 1972 The Journal of the Northeastern Political Science Association Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.2307/3234047 Views: 1Total views on this site Copyright 1972 PolityPDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Higher Civil Servants in the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs: Some Demographic and Career Characteristics, 1905-1916

One of those organs of tsarist government that apparently broadened its responsibilities and competencies during the nineteenth century was the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD). At the turn of the century the Ministry's authority extended over political and civil police, local agrarian affairs, licensing of physicians and veterinarians, gathering of statistical data for the empire (including censuses), postal and telegraphic services, press licensing and censorship, civil engineering, as well as other, equally diverse, areas. The publicly announced rationale for this vast range of competencies was that these functions all were directly related to the public welfare. As a government document written for Western consumption in the 1890s put it, the Ministry was “allotted the very extensive task of caring for the universal welfare of the people, the peace, quiet, and good order of the whole Empire.”

BOOK NOTES

L. B. KEEBLE. The Australian Planher's DilemmaR. A. CHAPMAN. The Higher Civil Service in BritainJOHN G. HUTCHINSON, editor. Readings in Management Strategy and TacticsN. R. INAMDAR. Functioning of Village Panchayats

The Higher Civil Service in Britain

The Higher Civil Service in Britain

Politics and Selection for the Higher Civil Service in New States

Politics and Selection for the Higher Civil Service in New States

Higher Civil Servants in Postwar Japan: Their Social Origins, Educational Backgrounds, and Career Patterns, by Akira Kubota

Higher Civil Servants in Postwar Japan: Their Social Origins, Educational Backgrounds, and Career Patterns, <i>by Akira Kubota</i>

The Higher Civil Service in Britain

It was a good idea to produce an up-todate study of higher civil servants in Britain. And what, it might have been thought, could have been better than that this should be done by someone who had himself been commissioned to do a small-scale study for the Fulton Committee, and knew his way about the voluminous material arising from their work? The account the author gives of his own cohort study, in which some three dozen entrants to the administra-

Book Reviews

Book reviews in this article: Statesmen in Disguise: The Changing Role of the Administrative Class of the British Home Civil Service, 1853–1966 Geoffrey K.Fry. Macmillan. The Higher Civil Service in Britain By Richard A.Chapman. Governing Britain By A.H.Hanson and Malcolm Walles. Government in France: An Introduction to the Executive Power By Malcolm Anderson. Government in Sweden: The Executive at Work By Neil Elder. Local Government in England 1958–1969 By H.Victor Wiseman (ed.). Democracy and Community By William Hampton. Going Comprehensive: Educational Policy‐making in Two County Boroughs By R.Batley, O.O'Brien and H.Parris. American City Politics By P.J.Madgwick. Government Patronage of the Arts in Great Britain By J.S.Harris.

BOOK REVIEWS

Book reviews in this article: THE HIGHER CIVIL SERVICE IN BRITAIN by Richard A. Chapman. ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM by Gerald E. Caiden. INDUSTRIAL ORGANISATION: BEHAVIOUR AND CONTROL edited by Joan Woodward. THE CONQUEST OF VIOLENCE by T. A. Critchley.

Higher Civil Servants in Postwar Japan: Their Social Origins, Educational Backgrounds, and Career Patterns.

Higher Civil Servants in Postwar Japan: Their Social Origins, Educational Backgrounds, and Career Patterns.

Higher Civil Servants in Postwar Japan. Their Social Origins, Educational Backgrounds, and Career Patterns.

Higher Civil Servants in Postwar Japan. Their Social Origins, Educational Backgrounds, and Career Patterns.

Higher Civil Servants in California: A Social and Political Portrait.

Higher Civil Servants in California: A Social and Political Portrait.

Les parlementaires et l'administration publique au Québec

The Backbenchers and the Administration in QuebecThis study uses two sets of data, one provided by an opinion survey of the backbenchers and the other by an analysis of the debates and questions in the Legislative Assembly of Quebec. The purpose of this lengthy description was to establish the representativeness of the Assembly and of the administration.Members of the Assembly belong to “superior” strata of the population, but less so however than the higher civil service. Those who consider themselves as “legislators” come generally from urban districts with a relatively high proportion of people with superior occupations, while the “delegates” are generally older and represent rural districts. According to the majority of the backbenchers, the main purpose of their relations with the administration, as well as of their debates in the Assembly, is to obtain goods and services for their constituents. Debates in the Assembly are oriented neither towards what members consider important areas of governmental activity nor to what they perceive as their constituents’ main interests but to day-to-day events and political strategy.

Imperial Japan's Higher Civil Service Examinations

Imperial Japan's Higher Civil Service Examinations

Das Problem der Kontinuitat in der Deutschen Revolution: Die Politik der Staatssekretare und der Militarischen Fuhrung vom November 1918 bis Februar 1919

THIS study, treating the policies of the state secretaries of the Reichsimter and of the military leadership between the crucial months of November I9I8 and February I919, is a significant addition to the historical literature on the German Revolution. It does not exhaust the subject, but it reveals new information and supplements earlier accounts by Tormin, Kolb, and Oertzen. The author draws extensively on archival sources, including the protocols of the Rat der Volksbeauftragten and the Zentralrat, most of which were recently published in English, the minutes of the conferences of state secretaries, and the personal papers of men like Groener and Eugen Schiffer. Presented in clear although undistinguished prose, his subject is topically arranged and proceeds from a summary description of the Social Democratic Reichsregierung and its state secretaries to a more detailed critical analysis of the policies of the high civil servants, who were charged with internal, external, and economic affairs, and the military, who presided over the demobilization of the German Army. It is Elben's contention, and here he in part repeats what others have argued, that the SPD and USPD members of the Rat der Volksbeauftragten were too overwhelmed by Germany's unanticipated economic and political collapse, too much lacking in clear-cut political conceptualization and direction, too fearful of the perpetuation of the revolution, and too impressed by the administrative expertise of the imperial civil servants and high military; and, therefore, they resorted to makeshift measures designed to restore order and ensure national unity and failed to realize the socialist program. Ebert initiated, and his fellow volksbeauftiragte supported, the continuation of the prerevolutionary state secretaries and chiefs of military authorities in their offices. Even though these men accepted the abolition of the monarchy, they behaved more like verstandesmaissige Republikaner than obedient civil servants of the new regime. Elben convincingly demonstrates that with the help of the Volksbeauftragte, who regarded them as administrative experts rather than politicians and granted them remarkable independence even where firm political control was called for, the state secretaries and military chiefs made use of the opportunity to lead Germany away from revolution and to lessen, if not prevent, the break with the past.