Questions tagged [civil-service]

The tag has no usage guidance.

Filter by
Sorted by
Tagged with
7 votes
3 answers
2k views

Is there a reason beyond protection from potential corruption to restrict a minister's ability to personally relieve and appoint civil servants?

In democracies like the UK, where ministers have considerable executive power, these ministers are still restricted (by law or convention) in their ability to get directly involved with the work of ...
14 votes
4 answers
5k views

Are there developed countries where elected officials can easily terminate government workers?

As per the answer to Can the US President fire government employees for poor performance? it seems like government employees are very hard to fire in the US. Are there developed countries where this ...
1 vote
3 answers
488 views

Why do government employees have a separate pensions fund?

In many countries government employees have a separate pension fund that pays out better than the one accessible to the general public. Likewise civil servants often go into retirement earlier than ...
8 votes
2 answers
4k views

Can the US President fire government employees for poor performance?

As an example, let's say President Biden orders the FBI to prepare and release a report to the general public by a certain deadline. The deadline arrives but the FBI's employees either fail to meet ...
2 votes
1 answer
397 views

When was the last time that the Cabinet Secretary was a Privy Counsellor?

Simon Case, the British Cabinet Secretary (most senior civil servant) was appointed to the Privy Council on 13 September 2022. Has it ever happened before that a serving cabinet secretary was a member ...
5 votes
1 answer
82 views

How do the resources available to the Government and the Opposition differ when it comes to planning

In the UK, when the Government has to respond to an ongoing situation such as the current cost-of-living crisis, there is an assumption that the Opposition will also be taking action. Headlines like ...
6 votes
1 answer
4k views

What are the advantages and disadvantages of a politically appointed vs. permanent Civil Service?

The United Kingdom1 has a permanent, and (in theory, at least) politically neutral Civil Service - although it is sometimes argued that this neutrality has been eroded in recent decades. In contrast, ...
7 votes
1 answer
228 views

Are there any observed instances of sabotage of the civil service?

In a case where an administration is on the way out, or strongly predicts that it is on the way out, has there been any observed occurrences of that administration sabotaging its civil service for the ...
0 votes
1 answer
192 views

How do governments (eg UK) shrink the civil service?

There is news that the UK government wants to reduce the civil service by about 65,000 which is almost 15% of the work force. This question is not about the politics of that, but about the ...
3 votes
3 answers
234 views

To what extent are senior non-elected officials such as the WH Chief of Staff provided with protection?

I have to admit my question is triggered by a scene in Veep, where a security situation results in the President being surrounded by Secret Service agents (s04e02), but after spending some time on ...
4 votes
1 answer
591 views

Safeguards in the UK political system against possible deception by the Civil Service

British MPs are democratically elected by plurality to represent their constituents in the legislature. MPs vote on laws initiated by the Government. MPs can initiate legislation via the Cabinet or ...
5 votes
1 answer
2k views

Is the CDC Director really below the former Ambassadors to Palau?

I've been trying to determine the precedence of the CDC Director using The United States Order of Precedence and I was getting stuck. I don't see the position called out explicitly in the table, nor ...
1 vote
1 answer
165 views

Dogmatic public officer & an ethical dilemma [closed]

Here is a dilemma, a county receives funds from the federal government which are insufficient. The Governor, democratically elected and handsomely wealthy, has infrastructure and master planning goals ...
9 votes
1 answer
398 views

Does the US require any level of apolitical-ness from career federal employees?

We have a question here Why should public servants be apolitical? which informs us that in Westminster-inspired systems, the career civil service employees can't even tweet their political opinions ...
2 votes
1 answer
204 views

Can the UK Civil Service propose legislation or direct legislation?

Can the UK Civil Service propose legislation or direct legislation? Are there rules governing how the Civil Service can behave in this regard?
8 votes
3 answers
736 views

Are there any polls on how the Civil Service feels about Brexit?

There have been some pro-Brexit politicians that claim the Civil Service is against Brexit: Civil servants will "do their best to frustrate" Brexit, Lord Lawson has said in an interview with BBC ...