Civilian personnel or officials employed on behalf of the state to administer central governmental policies, as distinct from the wider generality of public officials employed in such areas as local government, public corporations, and education, or as civilian staff of the armed forces. Most civil servants are permanent, in that they remain in post upon a change in government, though in some countries such as the USA and Germany a significant number of top positions do change hands. Civil services are hierarchically organized, operate according to established rules of procedure, and are accountable through ministers to the Crown or the state.
A civil servant or public servant is a civilian career public sector employee working for a government department or agency. Many consider the study of civil service to be a part of the field of public administration.
Early civil services
No state of any extent can be ruled without a bureaucracy, but organizations of any size have been few until the modern era.
One of the oldest examples of a merit-based civil service is the Imperial bureaucracy of China which can be traced back as far back as the Qin dynasty. The Chinese civil service became known to Europe in the mid-18th century, and influenced the development of European and American systems. (Bodde 2005)
Ironically, and in part due to Chinese influence, the first European civil service was not set up in Europe, but rather in India by the East India Company, distinguishing its civil servants from its military servants. The system then spread to the United Kingdom in 1854, and to the United States with the Pendleton Civil Service Act.
The British Civil Service
In the British Civil Service, civil servants are career employees recruited and promoted on the basis of their administrative skill and technical expertise, and as such do not include, nor are appointed by, elected officials or their political advisors. Civil servants are expected to be politically neutral, and are prohibited from taking part in political campaigns or being members of Parliament.
In the UK, employees of the National Health Service and of Local Government Authorities are not considered civil servants. The British Civil Service was at its largest in 1976 with approximately three-quarters of a million servants employed.
The archetypal senior British civil servant was famously caricatured in the 1980s BBC comedy Yes Minister and the civil service is also the subject of the other comedies, The Thick of It, as well as the earlier radio series, The Men from the Ministry.
The United States civil service
In the United States, the Federal Civil Service is defined as "all appointive positions in the executive, judicial, and legislative branches of the Government of the United States, except positions in the uniformed services." This was changed by the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act of 1883 and today U.S. Federal civil servants are appointed and recruited based on merit, although certain civil service positions, including some heads of diplomatic missions and executive agencies may also be filled by political appointees.
The U.S. civil service includes the Competitive service, and the Excepted service. The majority of civil service appointments in the U.S. are made under the Competitive Service, but certain categories in the Diplomatic Service, the FBI, and other National Security positions are made under the Excepted Service. (U.S. Code Title V)
United States State and local governnment entities often have competitive civil service systems that are modeled on the national system, to one degree or another.
The Indian Civil Service
The Indian Civil Service, attracts the best talent in India. As in other countries, Civil servants are expected to be politically neutral, and are prohibited from taking part in political campaigns or being members of Parliament. For example, in France all civil servants are career officials as in Britain, although ministers have a greater ability to select the occupants of senior posts on grounds of political sympathy (and consequently senior officers have the opportunity for lengthy secondments to the private sector when they are seen as unsuitable to work with the party in office);
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