Civil service
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The
Roman civil service in action.
Mary and
Joseph of Nazareth register for the census before Governor
Quirinius, mosaic 1315–20.
The term
civil service has two distinct meanings:
- A branch of governmental service in which individuals are employed on the basis of professional merit as proven by competitive examinations.
- The body of employees in any government agency other than the military.
A
civil servant or
public servant is a person
public sector employee working for a government department or agency. The term explicitly excludes the armed services, although civilian officials will work at "
Defence Ministry" headquarters. The term always includes the (sovereign) state's employees; whether regional, or sub-state, or even municipal employees are called "civil servants" varies from country to country. In the United Kingdom, for instance, only
Crown employees are referred to as civil servants, county or city employees are not.
Many consider the study of civil service to be a part of the field of
public administration. Workers in "non-departmental public bodies" (sometimes called "
QUANGOs") may also be classed as civil servants for the purpose of statistics and possibly for their terms and conditions. Collectively a state's civil servants form its
Civil Service or
Public Service.
Administrative institutions usually grow out of the personal servants of high officials, as in the Roman Empire. This developed a complex administrative structure, which is outlined in the
Notitia Dignitatum and the work of
John Lydus, but as far as we know appointments to it were made entirely by inheritance or patronage and not on merit, and it was also possible for officers to employ other people to carry out their official tasks but continue to draw their salary themselves. There are obvious parallels here with the early bureaucratic structures in modern states, such as the
Office of Works or the
Navy in 18th century England, where again appointments depended on patronage and were often bought and sold.
An
international civil servant or
international staff member is a civilian employee that is nominated by an international organisation.
[1] These international civil servants do not resort under any national legislation (from which they have immunity of jurisdiction) but are governed by an internal staff regulation. All disputes related to international civil service are brought before special tribunals created by these international organisations such as, for instance, the Administrative Tribunal of the ILO.
[2]
Specific referral can be made to the International Civil Service Commission (ICSC) of the UN, an independent expert body established by the United Nations General Assembly. Its mandate is to regulate and coordinate the conditions of service of staff in the United Nations common system, while promoting and maintaining high standards in the international civil service.
Contents
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[edit] By countries
[edit] Australia
Main article:
Australian Public Service
[edit] Canada
Main article:
Public Service of Canada
Canada's public service is a body with less than 10
departments and 450,000 members, including commissions, councils,
crown corporations, the
Office of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada, and the
Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
[edit] China
Emperor Wen of Sui (r. 581–604), who established the first
civil service examination system in China; a painting by the
chancellor and artist
Yan Liben (600–673).
One of the oldest examples of a civil service based on
meritocracy is the Imperial bureaucracy of
China, which can be traced as far back as the
Qin Dynasty (221–207 BC). During the
Han Dynasty (202 BC–220 AD) the
xiaolian system of recommendation by superiors for appointments to office was established. In the areas of administration, especially the military, appointments were based solely on merit.
After the fall of the Han Dynasty, the Chinese bureaucracy regressed into a semi-merit system known as the
Nine-rank system; in this system noble birthright became the most significant prerequisite for gaining access to more authoritative posts.
This system was reversed during the short-lived
Sui Dynasty (581–61
, which initiated a civil service bureaucracy recruited through
written examinations and recommendation. The following
Tang Dynasty (618–907) adopted the same measures for drafting officials, and decreasingly relied on aristocratic recommendations and more and more on promotion based on the results of written examinations.
However, the civil service examinations were practiced on a much smaller scale in comparison to the stronger, centralized bureaucracy of the
Song Dynasty (960–1279). In response to the regional military rule of
jiedushi and the loss of civil authority during the late Tang period and
Five Dynasties (907–960), the Song emperors were eager to implement a system where civil officials would owe their social prestige to the central court and gain their salaries strictly from the central government. This ideal was not fully achieved since many scholar officials were affluent landowners and were engaged in many anonymous business affairs in an age of
economic revolution in China. Nonetheless, gaining a degree through three levels of examination — prefectural exams, provincial exams, and the prestigious palace exams — was a far more desirable goal in society than becoming a merchant. This was because the mercantile class was traditionally regarded with some disdain by the
scholar official class. This class of state bureaucrats in the Song period were far less aristocratic than their Tang predecessors. The examinations were carefully structured in order to ensure that people of lesser means than what was available to candidates born into wealthy, landowning families were given a greater chance to pass the exams and obtain an official degree. This included the employment of a bureau of
copyists who would rewrite all of the candidates' exams in order to mask their handwriting and thus prevent favoritism by graders of the exams who might otherwise recognize a candidate's handwriting. The advent of widespread
printing in the Song period allowed many more examination candidates access to the
Confucian texts whose mastery was required for passing the exams.
[edit] France
Main article:
French Civil Service
The civil service in
France (
fonction publique) is often considered to include government employees, as well as employees of public corporations.
[edit] India
Main article:
Civil Services of India
The Civil Service exams in
India is conducted by
Union Public Service Commission (UPSC). Union Public Service Commission conducts Civil Service Examinations every year to select officers for various services including
Indian Administrative Services (IAS),
Indian Police Services (IPS),
Indian Foreign Services (IFS), Indian Revenue Services and other Group 'A' and Group 'B' central jobs. The examination is a three stage process which consists of Civil Services Aptitude Test CSAT (Earlier Civil Services Preliminary Examination) , Main Examination and the Interview. Entry into the IAS, IPS and the Central Services, Group A and Group B is through the All India Combined Competitive Examination for the Civil Services conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) in different centers spread all over the country. However, recruitment to the Indian Forest Service is through a different procedure. Entry into the State Civil Services is through a competitive examination conducted by every state public service commission. Close to 3.5 lakhs of candidates apply every year for the 400 to 500 vacancies that may arise.
[edit] United Kingdom
Main article:
Her Majesty's Civil Service
The civil service in the
United Kingdom only includes Crown employees; not those who are parliamentary employees.
Public sector employees such as teachers and
NHS doctors are not considered to be civil servants. Note that civil servants in the devolved government in
Northern Ireland are not part of the
Home Civil Service, but constitute the separate
Northern Ireland Civil Service.
[edit] Brazil
Civil servants in Brazil,
Servidor Público in
Portuguese, are those working in the
executive,
legislative and
judicial branches of the federal government, state government, municipal government and the Government of
Brasilia, including
congressmen,
senators,
mayors,
ministers, the
president of the
republic, and workers in
Government-owned corporation. Civil servants are hired on the basis of entrance examinations known as
Concurso Público in Portuguese. There are several companies with a government mandate to conduct the testing; the best known are CESPE, which belongs to the
University of Brasilia, the
Getulio Vargas Foundation, ESAF, and the Cesgranrio Foundation, which is part of the
Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. The positions are filled according to examination score and the number of vacancies.
[edit] Spain
The civil service in
Spain (
funcionariado) is often considered to include government employees, "Comunidades Autónomas" employees, as well as municipal employees. There are three main categories of Spanish civil services; political posts ("puestos de libre designación, level 28-30") requiring simple or no examinations, posts called "funcionarios de carrera" requiring an examination, and "personal laboral" posts, also with an exam similar to that for the "funcionarios de carrera". Examinations differ among the states, the 17 autonomic communities and the city councils, and the "funcionarios" and "personal laboral" exams vary in difficulty from one location to another.
[edit] Ireland
Main article:
Civil service of the Republic of Ireland
The civil service of
Ireland includes the employees of the
Department of State (excluded are
government ministers and a small number of paid political advisors) as well as a small number of core state agencies such as the
Office of the Revenue Commissioners, the
Office of Public Works, and the
Public Appointments Service. The organisation of the Irish Civil Service is very similar to the traditional organization of the British Home Civil Service, and indeed the grading system in the Irish Civil Service is nearly identical to the traditional grading system of its
British counterpart. In Ireland, public sector employees such as teachers or members of the country's
police force,
An Garda Síochána are not considered to be civil servants, but are rather described as "public servants" (and form the
Public service of the Republic of Ireland).
[edit] United States
Main article:
United States civil service
In the
United States, the civil service was established in 1872. 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." (
5 U.S.C. § 2101). In the early 19th century, government jobs were held at the pleasure of the president — a person could be fired at any time. The
spoils system meant that jobs were used to support the political parties. This was changed in slow stages by the
Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act of 1883 and subsequent laws. By 1909, almost 2/3 of the U.S. federal work force was appointed based on merit, that is, qualifications measured by tests. Certain senior civil service positions, including some heads of diplomatic missions and executive agencies are filled by
political appointees. Under the
Hatch Act of 1939, civil servants are not allowed to engage in political activities while performing their duties.
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)
U.S. state and local government entities often have competitive civil service systems that are modeled on the national system, in varying degrees.
As of January 2007, the Federal Government, excluding the Postal Service, employed about 1.8 million civilian workers. The Federal Government is the Nation's single largest employer. Although most federal agencies are based in the
Washington D.C. region, only about 16% (or about 288,000) of the federal government workforce is employed in this region.
[3]
There are over 1,300 federal government agencies.
[4]
[edit] Other meanings
Civil service also means a form of legal
conscientious objection, for example the
Swiss Civilian Service. More accurately, in this scope civil service is work performed in the public interest as a replacement for a military obligation to which one objects. The Finnish "siviilipalvelus", French "service civil", German "Zivildienst", Italian "servizio civile" and Swedish "civiltjänst" all can be translated as "civil service" in this sense.
