This article argues for ending tenure in the federal civil service. Arguments for tenure, and by extension against the old spoils system, are lacking. Even in the 19th century, relatively few federal managers lost their jobs after party changes. At the same time, limited rotation made the civil service relatively innovative and legitimate. Today, media scrutiny, more programmatic parties and presidents, and the limited capacity of the White House suggest that if presidential appointment authority were vastly expanded, the results would be modest. Such results as would occur might empower political leaders to accomplish more of their objectives and to remake under performing organizations, as well as empower career managers (who would still exist) to better lead their organizations. Each tendency would increase the effectiveness, representation, and legitimacy of the bureaucracy without necessarily increasing corruption. My arguments do not apply to state and local governments, which often operate in less competitive political environments.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Aberbach, J. D. , & Rockman, B. A. (1988). Mandates or mandarins? Control or discretion in the modern administrative state. Public Administration Review, 48, 606-612.
2.
Allison, G. T. (1984). Public and private management: Are they fundamentally alike in all unimportant respects. In R. J. Stillman (Ed.), Public administration: Concepts and cases (pp. 453-456). Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
3.
Aron, C. S. (1987). Ladies and gentlemen of the civil service. New York: Oxford University Press.
4.
Ban, C. (1995). How do public managers manage?San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
5.
Bernstein, M. (1958). The job of the federal executive. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution.
6.
Branch, T. (1979). Courage without esteem: Profiles in whistle-blowing. In C. Peters & M. Nelson (Eds.), The culture of bureaucracy (pp. 217-237). New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
7.
Brauer, C. M. (1986). Presidential transitions: Eisenhower through Reagan. New York: Oxford University Press.
8.
Crenson, M. A. (1975). The federal machine. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
9.
Devine, D. J. (1985). Public administration in the Reagan era. Washington, DC: Office of Personnel Management.
10.
Durant, R. (1990). Beyond fear or favor: Appointee-careerist relations in the post-Reagan era. Public Administration Review, 50, 319-331.
11.
Erie, S. P. (1988). Rainbow's end. Berkeley: University of California Press.
12.
Fitzgerald, A. E. (1989). The pentagonists: An inside view of waste and corruption. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
13.
Freedman, A. (1994). Patronage: An American tradition. Chicago: Nelson-Hall.
14.
Friedman, M. (1983). Sticking price tags on job performance in government. Management, 4, 10-12.
15.
Goodsell, C. T. (1985). The case for bureaucracy (2nd ed.). Chatham, NJ: Chatham House.
16.
Heclo, H. (1977). A government of strangers. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution.
17.
Hult, K. M. , & Walcott, C. (1990). Governing public organizations: Politics, structures, and institutional design. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole.
18.
Jacoby, R. (1987). The last intellectuals: American culture in the age of academe. New York: Basic Books.
19.
Kaufman, H. (1956). Emerging conflicts in the doctrines of public administration. American Political Science Review, 50, 1057-1073.
20.
Kaufman, H. (1976). Are government organizations immortal?Washington, DC: Brookings Institution.
21.
Killam, P. P. , & Maranto, R. A. (1997). The devil you know: Federal executives compare contractors and civil service employees. Manuscript submitted for publication.
22.
Knott, J. H. , & Miller, G. J. (1987). Reforming bureaucracy. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
23.
Long, N. E. (1962). The polity. Chicago: Rand McNally.
24.
Lowi, T. J. (1979). The end of liberalism (2nd ed.). New York: Norton.
25.
Lowi, T. J. (1985). The personal presidency: Power invested, promise unfulfilled. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
26.
Malek, F. V. (1978). Washington's hidden tragedy. New York: Free Press.
27.
Maranto, R. (1993a, August). Exploring the Clinton transition: Views from the career civil service. Paper presented at the meeting of the American Political Science Association Convention, Washington, DC.
28.
Maranto, R. (1993b). Politics and bureaucracy in the modern presidency: Careerists and appointees in the Reagan administration. Westport, CT: Greenwood.
29.
Maranto, R. (1993c). The administrative strategies of Republican presidencies from Eisenhower to Reagan. Presidential Studies Quarterly, 23, 683-697.
30.
Maranto, R. , & Schultz, D. (1991). A short history of the U.S. civil service. Lanham, MD: University Press of America.
31.
Maslow, A. H. (1943). A theory of human motivation. Psychological Review, 50, 370-396.
32.
Maynard-Moody, S. , Stull, D. D., & Mitchell, J. (1986). Reorganization as a status drama: Building, maintaining, and displacing dominant subcultures. Public Administration Review, 46, 301-310.
33.
Moe, T. M. (1985). The politicized presidency. In J. Chubb & P. Peterson (Eds.), The new direction in American politics (pp. 235-271). Washington, DC: Brookings Institution.
34.
National Commission on the Public Service (Volcker Commission) . (1989). Leadership for America: Rebuilding the public service. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books.
35.
Nelson, M. (1982). A short, ironic history of American national bureaucracy. Journal of Politics, 44, 747-778.
36.
Page, E. C. (1985). Political authority and bureaucratic power. Brighton, UK: Wheatsheaf.
37.
Peters, C. (1979). A kind word for the spoils system. In C. Peters & M. Nelson (Eds.), The culture of bureaucracy (pp. 263-267). New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
38.
Peters, C. (1992). How Washington really works. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
39.
Peters, C. , & Nelson, M. (1979). The culture of bureaucracy. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
40.
Rainey, H. G. (1997). Understanding and managing public organizations. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
41.
Rector, R. , & Sanera, M. (Eds.). (1987). Steering the elephant: How Washington really works. New York: Universe Books.
42.
Ricci, D. M. (1984). The tragedy of political science. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
43.
Riccucci, N. M. (1991). Merit, equity, and test validity. Administration and Society, 23, 74-93.
44.
Riordon, W. L. (1963). Plunkitt of Tammany Hall. New York: E. P. Dutton.
45.
Savas, E. S. , & Ginsburg, S.G. (1973). The civil service: A meritless system?Public Interest, 32, 70-85.
46.
Schiesl, M. J. (1977). The politics of efficiency. Berkeley: University of California Press.
47.
Schneider, B. R. (l991). Politics within the state: Elite bureaucrats and industrial policy in authoritarian Brazil. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press.
48.
Schrecker, E. W. (1986). No ivory tower. New York: Oxford University Press.
49.
Schultz, D. (1991, September). Supreme Court enforcement of neutral competence ideology. Paper presented at the annual American Political Science Association Convention, Washington, DC.
50.
Skowronek, S. (1982). Building a new American state. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
51.
Sorauf, F. J. (1963). Party and representation. New York: Atherton.
52.
Sorauf, F. J. , & Beck, PA. (1988). Party politics in America (6th ed.). Glenview, IL: Scott, Foresman.
53.
Stein, L. (1991). Holding bureaucrats accountable. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press.
54.
Stigler, G. (1979). The intellectual and the marketplace. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
55.
Van Riper, P. P. (1958). History of the U.S. civil service. Evanston, IL: Row, Peterson.
56.
Von Mises, L. (1944). Bureaucracy. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
57.
Warwick, D. P. (1975). A theory of public bureaucracy. Cambridge, UK: Harvard University Press.
58.
Weber, M. (1978). Bureaucracy. In J. M. Shafritz & A. C. Hyde (Eds.), Classics of public administration (Rev. ed.). (pp. 23-28). Oak Park, IL: Moore.
59.
Weko, T. J. (1991). A good man is hard to find: Presidents and their political executives. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.
60.
White, L. D. (1954). The Jacksonians: A study in administrative history. New York: Macmillan.
61.
White, L. D. (1958). The Republican era: 1869-1901. New York: Macmillan.
62.
Wilson, J. Q. (1960). The amateur democrat. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
63.
Wilson, J. Q. (1968). Varieties of police behavior. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
64.
Wilson, W. (1978). The study of administration. In J. M. Shafritz & A. C. Hyde (Eds.), Classics of public administration (Rev. ed.). (pp. 3-16). Oak Park, IL: Moore.
