Abstract
The author surveyed how top management posts are filled in the 50 state governments. Below their direct patronage powers, governors and their political appointees have increasing influence over a netherworld of policy-involved exempt, unclassified, noncompetitive, management contract, senior executive services, and “at will employment” personnel classes. These “exempt managers” serve as a buffer between the top political appointees and the traditional protected civil service, and they are increasingly more career and merit oriented. Firings are rare due to the need for competence and continuity and the legal ambiguities of these employees' rights, but their ambiguous roles need more professional definition.
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