The Profession of Public Service

William E. Mosher

American Political Science Review, 1938, vol. 32, issue 2, 332-342

Abstract: In introducing the subject of this paper, it is held that we have failed, on the whole, to develop the public service as a well-recognized professional calling in this country, although it is not denied that preliminary steps toward this goal have been taken here and there, and particularly during the past few years. The position is probably tenable that more progress has been made in this direction in the last decade than in any preceding period since Jackson, not excepting the decade from 1883 to 1893 when civil service commissions were first installed. Jackson's famous statement: “The duties of all public officers are, or at least should be, made so plain and simple that men of intelligence may readily qualify themselves for their performance, and I cannot but believe that more is lost by the long continuance of men in office than is generally to be gained by their experience,” has apparently been perennially accepted by the general public.

Date: 1938
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