26
votes
Accepted
Is there a reason beyond protection from potential corruption to restrict a minister's ability to personally relieve and appoint civil servants?
This is part of the political traditions of the UK.
A benefit is that the civil service can hire some of the most able graduates from the top universities on the understanding that they won't lose ...
- 115k
23
votes
Can the US President fire government employees for poor performance?
Generally the president cannot, but an employee's direct supervisors can institute adverse actions of one form or another for poor performance. These can extend to dismissal, but missing a deadline ...
- 17.4k
21
votes
Are there developed countries where elected officials can easily terminate government workers?
In germany: Yes, for certain high-level bureaucrats.
In Germany, some high-level posts are designated to be a Politischer Beamter (literally: political civil servant).
According to law (§ 30 Abs. 1 ...
- 2,291
16
votes
Are there developed countries where elected officials can easily terminate government workers?
No.
Two things to keep in mind here:
Being a "Developed" nation implies that a justified and fair procedure exist for any government action. An independent judiciary safeguards such ...
- 6,689
11
votes
Accepted
Does the US require any level of apolitical-ness from career federal employees?
The Hatch Act of 1937 prohibits US federal employees in the executive branch from participating in certain political activities, such as run for a partisan office or express partisan political views ...
- 252
10
votes
Accepted
Safeguards in the UK political system against possible deception by the Civil Service
I believe this question is fundamentally the wrong way up; as a result of how it's constructed, the UK is a thin democratic layer on top of various parts of what I would call the "permanent state": ...
- 22k
10
votes
Accepted
Is the CDC Director really below the former Ambassadors to Palau?
Yes.
Category is 42b is the best fit. The Center for Disease Control is an office or agency within an executive branch department, specifically the Department of Health and Human Services within the ...
- 73.4k
10
votes
Are there developed countries where elected officials can easily terminate government workers?
In united-states, yes, but to a limited extent. Of the over two million civilian civil servants employed by the US federal government, the President can only fire about four thousand of them. These ...
- 12.6k
9
votes
Is there a reason beyond protection from potential corruption to restrict a minister's ability to personally relieve and appoint civil servants?
Loss of institutional knowledge.
This plagues the US quite severely because a lot of even mid-level positions are replaced with each administration.
For a regular job, half a year is considered ...
- 521
7
votes
Why do government employees have a separate pensions fund?
Employees, both in the private and public sector, often get complicated pay packages that include monthly salaries, pension entitlements through different schemes, medical benefits, and other ...
- 106k
7
votes
Accepted
When was the last time that the Cabinet Secretary was a Privy Counsellor?
The last time this was the case was in 1972, when Sir Burke Trend - then Cabinet Secretary for Ted Heath - became a Privy Counsellor. His appointment was published in the London Gazette on May 23rd, ...
CDJB♦
- 105k
6
votes
Accepted
Why do government employees have a separate pensions fund?
The definitions of deferred versus immediate payouts in o.m. answer are excellent. The explanation for why the public sector puts more emphasis on deferred payouts only covers the 'nice' aspects ...
- 7,037
5
votes
Is there a reason beyond protection from potential corruption to restrict a minister's ability to personally relieve and appoint civil servants?
I am not sure how internationally relevant this is, but in Germany one reason is the status of civil servants as "Beamte", which broadly means they have a right to employment until ...
- 6,004
5
votes
Accepted
How do governments (eg UK) shrink the civil service?
You can lay people off, as a private company would. The process of making someone redundant is well established in employment law. Public sector employees can be laid off by going through a ...
- 115k
5
votes
Accepted
Can the UK Civil Service propose legislation or direct legislation?
No. The civil service works for Ministers to develop and implement legislation. Only MPs can propose new laws.
However when the government is drafting legislation to present to parliament, they will ...
- 115k
4
votes
Accepted
Are there any polls on how the Civil Service feels about Brexit?
I have not seen any polls that are specific to Civil Servants. But
I have seen reports which suggest that senior officials in the Treasury, the Foreign Office etc are mostly opposed to Brexit.
This ...
- 10.7k
4
votes
How do the resources available to the Government and the Opposition differ when it comes to planning
The government may draw up and execute policy plans with the aid of civil servants, who may give advice but remain politically neutral, as well as 'SpAds', special advisers who are political ...
CDJB♦
- 105k
4
votes
Accepted
Are there any observed instances of sabotage of the civil service?
History has at least one.
The foundational SCOTUS case Marbury v. Madison arose from a lame-duck Congress basically engaging in openly packing the courts at the last possible moment in order to ...
- 16.4k
3
votes
Are there developed countries where elected officials can easily terminate government workers?
In Australia - yes, for the Secretary of each Department only.
This is covered in the Public Service Management Act, S58
In the case of the Secretary of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (PM&C) ...
- 570
3
votes
Can the US President fire government employees for poor performance?
Not currently, but it's (theoretically) within his power to change the law to do so.
Federal employees have Civil Service protections through the Civil Service act, but Trump, at the end of his term, ...
- 2,302
2
votes
To what extent are senior non-elected officials such as the WH Chief of Staff provided with protection?
Myriad Agencies In The Federal Government Are Involved
Prior to the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, almost every U.S. government agency had its own law enforcement or security ...
- 73.4k
2
votes
To what extent are senior non-elected officials such as the WH Chief of Staff provided with protection?
To what extent are senior non-elected officials such as the WH Chief of Staff provided with protection?
An article from abcnews, Protecting US government leaders: Who gets security and why: ANALYSIS, ...
- 34.4k
2
votes
To what extent are senior non-elected officials such as the WH Chief of Staff provided with protection?
To0 the best of my understanding, there is no automatic protection given to such officials, but protection may be assigned as the needs of the moment dictate. If there is a perceived threat, ...
- 2,621
1
vote
Accepted
Dogmatic public officer & an ethical dilemma
The main point would not be the source of the money but the decision process.
Let's imagine that we have some kind of magic oracle that can tell us the utility of each $ used for each project1. Then ...
- 31.2k
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