The Civil Service in the Modern State

Herman Finer

American Political Science Review, 1925, vol. 19, issue 2, 277-289

Abstract: “I'd give them th' votes,” said Mr. Dooley. “But,” he added significantly, “I'd do the countin'!” These words symbolise, in a crude way, the direction of political inquiry in the century prior to the year 1880. Until about that time political scientists were concerned mainly with the processes of policy and law-making. Incident to this were studied things like the nature of public opinion and the electorate, political parties, representative assemblies and their relation to the executive. But the problem of the civil service in the modern state emerged in its full importance not longer than some four decades ago; and indeed, today, we are only in the stage of discovering the questions yet to be explored.The centre of gravity in political science has plainly shifted from the field of electioneering to that of the civil service. In our own day that machinery serves two purposes of high importance. Firstly, it furnishes the expert knowledge without which parliaments can not, in any adequate fashion, create and enact policies. Secondly, it carries out the commands of the policymaking body. The experience of the United States, of Great Britain, of France, Germany, Canada, Australia and South Africa, shows conclusively that to perform the first of these two functions the members of the representative assemblies have neither the time, the ability, the inclination, nor the machinery. They must come to the permanent office-holders for expert knowledge. And as to the second, a variety of reasons forces them to legislate in general terms and leave the civil servants to draw up statutory rules and orders—to create “secondary legislation,” the enormous and increasing mass of which gives the civil service in the modern state a vast power.

Date: 1925
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