Re-Orienting the Comparative Study of Civil Service Systems

1988 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 84-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Philip Morgan ◽  
James L. Perry
Keyword(s):  
Public Administration ◽  
Civil Service ◽  
Practical Importance ◽  
Service Systems ◽  
Theory Building ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Research Needs ◽  
Ideal Types ◽  
Per Se ◽  
The Comparative Study

Civil service systems are a key analytic unit in modern public administration, but theory about them lags behind their practical importance and the attention they have received from scholars. This article argues that theory building has focused on bureaucracy rather than civil service systems per se and that empirical research has been dominated by functionalist logic. Future research needs to define more rigorously and measure the properties of civil service systems and study them more holistically, particularly in relation to their environments. Three ideal types are discussed to illustrate some of the implications of these recommendations.

Ukrainian Civil Service: Implementation of the Public Administration Reform Strategy in Ukraine

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 1439
Author(s):  
Oleksandra I. VASYLIEVA ◽  
Sergii V. SLUKHAI ◽  
Svitlana K. KHADZHYRADIEVA ◽  
Andriy A. KLOCHKO ◽  
Anna G. PASHKOVA
Keyword(s):  
Public Administration ◽  
Civil Service ◽  
Practical Importance ◽  
Life Quality ◽  
Public Institution ◽  
Public Image ◽  
Legal Compliance ◽  
Administrative Services ◽  
The Public ◽  
Soviet Legacy

Civil service as a public institution is called to increase the life quality standards for the population by delivery of high-quality administrative services, forming and ensuring the implementation of the public policy, supervision and control over legal compliance of public bodies’ and officials’ actions. However, in Ukraine it does not fully meet these objectives and requires substantial reforming. The relevance of this study lies in an active interest of philosophers, scientists, and lawyers in the research and definition of socio-economic and political turbulence in modern Ukraine caused by internal and external factors. The paper discusses the innovations of civil service in Ukraine, which are aimed at improving the performance and ensuring the quality of civil service. The results of this paper demonstrate that Ukraine has moved quite a distance from the Soviet legacy as far as civil service is concerned. Nevertheless, the country still has a lot to be done: these achievements must be supported by steady efforts so as to make them irreversible and to significantly increase the efficiency of public administration. In this connection, the civil service reform in Ukraine must be supported not only by policy measures that enhance the professionalism of civil servants, but also by the improvement of their public image. The practical importance is determined by the need to formulate priority ways of raising the country’s economic competitiveness and promoting social welfare.  

scholarly journals General characteristics of civil service systems

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (5) ◽  
pp. 68-72
Author(s):  
Stanislav Lyubich
Keyword(s):  
European Integration ◽  
Public Administration ◽  
European Community ◽  
Civil Service ◽  
Service Systems ◽  
Service Organization ◽  
Mixed System ◽  
Public Interests ◽  
Public Administration Reform ◽  
Western Law

The article deals with elucidating the general features of various systems of civil service organiza-tion. The relevance of the study is due to the fact that Ukraine's participation in globalization and European integration processes reflects the necessity to study the experience of states that make up the Western law tradition, which should focus on civil service systems, based on the state's tasks within democratic societies and permanent public administration reform in Ukraine. The focus is on the distinguishing of three classic systems of civil service organization that are immanent to the European community states: career, job and mixed system. It is indicated the prevalence of career models within the abovementioned states. The determinant feature of the modernization model of the civil service is the management of purely public interests and demands.

Career Patterns in Administrations

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sylvia Veit
Keyword(s):  
Public Administration ◽  
Civil Service ◽  
Service System ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Civil Servants ◽  
Career Patterns ◽  
Central State ◽  
Ideal Types ◽  
Organizational Patterns ◽  
Democratic Systems

Administrative careers are careers of civil servants, who are the individuals working in public administration institutions at different levels (central, state or regional, local) of government. Characteristics of a country’s civil service system determine what administrative career patterns typically look like. In the literature, two ideal-types of civil service systems are distinguished: the career-based system and the position-based system. In countries with a position-based civil service system, administrative careers usually are more diverse than in countries with a career-based civil service system. In most countries, however, intersectoral career mobility of civil servants is rather low. In democratic systems, recruitment and promotion in the civil service is formally based on merit and (with decreasing significance) seniority, while in practice political criteria and representativeness can be important selection criteria, especially for promotion to senior-level positions. As a consequence of their influential role in policy-making in many countries, research on careers in public administrations is mainly focusing on top-level positions: by analyzing the career background of top officials, public administration scholarship aims to understand the determinants of career success in public administrations as well as processes of administrative elite (re-)production and politicization. Findings from empirical studies suggest that political criteria do not crowd out meritocratic criteria in recruitment in most established democracies but that politicization can have severe negative impacts on administrative outcomes in young democracies and developing countries. Comparative empirical studies on administrative careers based on common datasets are largely lacking so far. More systematic comparative studies (across countries and over time) on administrative careers would not only make it possible to understand how larger systemic developments (e.g., administrative reform movements, democratic backsliding) affect mechanisms of recruitment and promotion in the civil service, but also help to better understand the inner mechanisms in bureaucratic organizations (e.g., by identifying organizational patterns of inequality).

Civil Service Systems

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vainius Smalskys ◽  
Jolanta Urbanovič
Keyword(s):  
Public Administration ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Civil Service ◽  
Service System ◽  
Rapid Change ◽  
Charismatic Leadership ◽  
Civil Servants ◽  
Service Systems ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Career Model

Civil service consists of civil servants and their activity when implementing the assigned functions and decisions made by politicians. In other words, it is a system of civil servants who perform the assigned functions of public administration. The corpus of civil servants consists of people who work in central and local public administration institutions. The concept and scope of civil service in a particular country depends on the legal framework that defines the areas of public and private sectors and their relationship. In many countries, civil service consists of an upper level, a mid-level, and civil servants who work for coordinating, independent, and auxiliary institutions. However, the scope of civil service in different countries varies. When analyzing/comparing civil service systems of different countries, researchers often categorize them as Western European, continental European, Anglo-American, Anglo-Saxon, Eastern European, Scandinavian, Mediterranean, Asian, or African.All European Union member states can be classified into two groups: the career system—dominant in continental Europe, with the prevalence of traditional-hierarchical public administration, rational bureaucracy, and formalized operational rules—and the position system—dominant in Anglo-Saxon countries, with the prevalence of managerial principles, pragmatic administration, and charismatic leadership. Neither of the two models exists in pure form. If features of the career model dominate in the civil service of a country, it is identified as a country with the career CS model; if elements of the position model dominate the country is identified as a country with the position civil service model. An intermediate version of this model, characteristic of a number of countries, is the mixed/hybrid model.Many civil service researchers claim that in the case of two competing systems of civil service—closed (the career model) and open (the position model)—reforms of the open civil service system win. It has been argued that the organizing principles of the open, result-oriented civil service system (the position model), which is under the influence of “new public management,” will permanently “drive out” the closed, vertically integrated and formal procedure-oriented career model. Scholars argue that civil servants of the future will have to be at ease with more complexity and flexibility. They will have to be comfortable with change, often rapid change. At the same time, they will make more autonomous decisions and be more responsible, accountable, performance-oriented, and subject to new competency and skill requirements.

scholarly journals Unpacking Patronage: The Politics of Patronage Appointments in Argentina's and Uruguay's Central Public Administrations

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 59-98
Author(s):  
Francisco Panizza ◽  
Conrado Ricardo Ramos Larraburu ◽  
Gerardo Scherlis
Keyword(s):  
Public Administration ◽  
Party Systems ◽  
Theory Building ◽  
The Public ◽  
Factors Associated ◽  
Patronage Politics ◽  
Governmental Power ◽  
The Comparative Study ◽  
Ruling Party

This study makes the following contributions to the study of the politics of patronage appointments in Latin America: Conceptually it adopts Kopecký, Scherlis, and Spirova's (2008) distinction between clientelistic and nonclientelistic types of patronage politics and widens these authors classification of patrons’ motivations for making appointments, specifically as a lens for the study of patronage practices within Latin America's presidentialist regimes. Analytically, it sets up a new taxonomy of patronage appointments based on the roles that appointees’ play vis-à- vis the executive, the ruling party, and the public administration – one that can be used for the comparative study of the politics of patronage. Empirically, it applies this taxonomy to a pilot study of the politics of patronage in Argentina and Uruguay under two left-of-center administrations. Theoretically, it contributes to theory-building by relating the findings of our research to the differences in party systems and presidential powers within the two countries under study, and to agency factors associated with the respective governments’ own political projects. The article concludes that differences in patronage practices are a manifestation of two variant forms of exercising governmental power: a hyper-presidentialist, populist one in Argentina and a party-centered, social-democratic one in Uruguay.

Understanding Limited Use of Amplification in Infants and Children Who Are Hard of Hearing

2015 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryan W. McCreery ◽  
Elizabeth A. Walker ◽  
Meredith Spratford
Keyword(s):  
Hard Of Hearing ◽  
Hearing Aid ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Infants And Children ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Research Needs ◽  
Case Examples ◽  
Hearing Aid Use ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
In Infants And Children

The effectiveness of amplification for infants and children can be mediated by how much the child uses the device. Existing research suggests that establishing hearing aid use can be challenging. A wide range of factors can influence hearing aid use in children, including the child's age, degree of hearing loss, and socioeconomic status. Audiological interventions, including using validated prescriptive approaches and verification, performing on-going training and orientation, and communicating with caregivers about hearing aid use can also increase hearing aid use by infants and children. Case examples are used to highlight the factors that influence hearing aid use. Potential management strategies and future research needs are also discussed.

Locus of Control, Safety Attitudes and Involvement in Hazardous Events in Indian Army Aviators

2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine Joseph ◽  
Suhasini Reddy ◽  
Kanwal Kashore Sharma
Keyword(s):  
Locus Of Control ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Research Needs ◽  
Negative Attitudes ◽  
Human Errors ◽  
Safety Attitudes ◽  
Positive Correlation ◽  
Self Confidence

Locus of control (LOC), safety attitudes, and involvement in hazardous events were studied in 205 Indian Army aviators using a questionnaire-based method. A positive correlation was found between external LOC and involvement in hazardous events. Higher impulsivity and anxiety, and decreased self-confidence, safety orientation, and denial were associated with a greater number of hazardous events. Higher external LOC was associated with higher impulsivity, anxiety, and weather anxiety and with lower self-confidence, safety orientation, and denial. Internal LOC was associated with increased self-confidence, safety orientation, and denial. Hazardous events and self-confidence were higher in those involved in accidents than those not involved in accidents. Future research needs to address whether training can effectively modify LOC and negative attitudes, and whether this would cause a reduction in, and better management of, human errors.

Public Administration in the Islamic World: Considering the Importance of Religion, its Values and Culture

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 23-38
Author(s):  
Daniel Hummel
Keyword(s):  
Public Administration ◽  
Core Values ◽  
Comparative Perspective ◽  
Religious Values ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Islamic World ◽  
Salient Region ◽  
The People ◽  
Comparative Public Administration

A small but growing area of public administration scholarship appreciates the influence of religious values on various aspects of government. This appreciation parallels a growing interest in comparative public administration and indigenized forms of government which recognizes the role of culture in different approaches to government. This article is at the crossroads of these two trends while also considering a very salient region, the Islamic world. The Islamic world is uniquely religious, which makes this discussion even more relevant, as the nations that represent them strive towards legitimacy and stability. The history and core values of Islam need to be considered as they pertain to systems of government that are widely accepted by the people. In essence, this is being done in many countries across the Islamic world, providing fertile grounds for public administration research from a comparative perspective. This paper explores these possibilities for future research on this topic.

Evolution of public administration in the post-Soviet. Turkmenistan

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (5) ◽  
pp. 98-118
Author(s):  
ALYM K. ANNAMURADOV ◽  
◽  
OVEZDURDY B. MUKHAMMETBERDIEV ◽  
MURAD O. HAITOV ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Administration ◽  
Civil Service ◽  
The State ◽  
Civil Servants ◽  
Historical Changes ◽  
Special Place ◽  
Independent States ◽  
World Class ◽  
New Independent States

The article examines the formation of the statehood of modern Turkmenistan through the prism of historical changes that have occurred in the post-Soviet countries. It is noted that after 1991 all former republics of the USSR built new independent states on a fundamentally different basis – interaction between government and society. The authors emphasize that the establishment of trust between the state as an institution and citizens is possible under certain conditions, among which a special place is occupied by a clear organization of civil service and the professionalism of civil servants. The measures that have already been implemented and are being taken by the leadership of Turkmenistan at the present time to solve these problems are considered. It is noted that Turkmenistan acts within the framework and in accordance with the key world-class standards regarding the requirements for the organization of civil service. The measures taken in the country to combat corruption are analyzed.

Collaborative Remembering in Dementia: A Focus on Joint Activities

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lars-Christer Hydén ◽  
Mattias Forsblad
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Past Research ◽  
Research Field ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Research Needs ◽  
Joint Activities ◽  
Do So ◽  
Dementia Diseases

In this chapter we consider collaborative remembering and joint activates in everyday life in the case of people living with dementia. First, we review past research of practices that scaffolds the participation of persons with dementia in everyday chores under different stages of dementia diseases. We do so by suggesting three analytical types of scaffolding: when the scaffolding practices (i) frame the activity, (ii) guide actions, or (iii) are part of repair activities. Second, we review two aspects of collaborative remembering that are especially important in the case of dementia: training of scaffolding practices, and the sustaining and presentation of identities through collaborative storytelling. Finally, theoretical and methodological tendencies of the research field are summarized and future research needs are formulated.

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