Civil Service Reform Essay

There is a plethora of criticisms about the effectiveness of the Bureaucracy. Even during the 19th century, as Wilson writes, the Post Office “was an organization marred by inefficiency and corruption”. With an appointment standard such as the “spoils system”, where individuals or groups are granted high level positions based on political favors alone, corruption is almost a certainty. The political aspect of the Bureaucracy was prevalent in the military for over 100 years, as Wilson states “the size and deployment of the military establishment in this country was governed entirely by decisions made by political leaders on political grounds”. Political favors and factors plague our government, including the Bureaucracy. A by-product of these political favors and corruptions are stagnancy and mediocrity. An example of this, as

In his book, Bureaucracy: What Government Agencies do and why they do it, James Q. Wilson’s main objective is to better define the behavior of governmental bureaucracy, believing traditional organizational and economic theory does not adequately explain their actions. Wilson believes that government agencies are doomed to be perceived as inefficient entities by the public. He gives examples of commonly held perceptions of bureaucracies and reveals how these are mostly misconceptions. He points to the environment of bureaucracy, where rules and procedures, dictate goals, along with context, constraints, values, and norms.

Human services professionals are those who facilitate and empower those in society who require assistance in meeting their basic human needs both emotionally, mentally, and physically. Human services professionals work with diverse cultures in many different settings to provide prevention, education, and resources for individuals, families, groups and communities. Some of the populations served are, children and families, adolescents, and the homeless. To support groups in crisis human services professionals must be committed, patient, possess listening skills, and have an ability to be empathetic without reducing one’s ability to be empowered (Martin, 2011).

Before civil service reform, elected officials could easily remove anti-Tammany city employees and replace them with Tammany supporters in return for their work during the campaign. This sort of "spoils system" encouraged young people to get involved with politics and to love their country. According to Plunkitt (and he gives many examples) after civil service examinations young men become anarchists or in the worst case one joins the Spanish army and actually fights against the same men he used to support and love. Not only did this "spoils system" encourage young people, it also helped hold the United States party system together. And that, according to Plunkitt, would all change if supporters were not rewarded with government jobs for their work. However, the Civil Service act of 1883 did more to instigate the merit system in politics than anything else. Plunkitt's arguments against the civil service reforms are amusing but his generalities make his argument difficult to believe. One would assume that Plunkitt's motivation for attacking civil service was because of his personal motivation not the reasons presented in his "Very Plain Talks on Very Practical Politics." Plunkitt clearly was a politician for himself and his supporters, in all he cared very little about the welfare of New York City as a whole.

Civil service are deliberate actions to improve on effectiveness, efficiency, professionalism, democratic character, and representativity of a civil service with visions to encouraging better delivery of better services and public goods with improved accountability. The following paper seeks to discuss the Pendleton act of 1883 and the civil service reform act of 1978. The Pendleton act was steered and passed through congress in the year 1883. It was passed improve and regulate the civil service of the United States. Breaking the Spoils system which had become the practice and custom of presidential administrations was the main purpose of the Pendleton act of 1883.

The cost of maintaining any civil service is expensive to maintain, this is especially true for

Goodsell’s book “The Case for Bureaucracy: A Public Administration Polemic” is composed on the contrary. Goodsell makes several arguments in favor of the fundamental soundness of American bureaucracy. His thoughts are derived from a core belief: the quality of public service in the United States is vastly underrated (p. xi). His polemic is such that the flaws and the faults of bureaucracy in America are far fewer on a proportionate basis than is generally thought. The argument of this book is that a wide gap exists between bureaucracy’s repopulation and its record. Despite endless ranting to the contrary, American bureaucracy does work – in fact, quite well (p. 4). According to Goodsell criticisms of government bureaucracy are based more on myth than reality. Goodsell argues that government agencies actually play a valuable and indispensable role in making our society a better place to live. For instance Goodsell examines studies that show what he argues is evidence of public satisfaction with bureaucracy. His arguments are based on such statistics as “most” citizens believing that police do not accept bribes (p. 27) or that “only” a quarter of welfare recipients waited a half hour or more for service (p. 35). In addressing direct performance evaluation, Goodsell shows that public bureaucracy has witnessed overall growth in productivity from 1967 through 1990. He acknowledges, however, that this cannot be fairly compared to private industry’s experience over the

In a meritocracy, a person is elected into their position based on their ability and what they are able to do to positively impact the society. With this government in place, it will prevent just anyone from having too much power. By putting people in positions with their strongest abilities accentuated, it will better the country as a whole. A government like this also has a lower risk of corruption. When you ensure that only the people with the right credentials will be in office it prevents a multitude of horrible things from happening to the country. Therefore, citizens will not have to worry if their leaders are only there because of their money and how well they are able to impress people with it. When a country puts everything they have into restraining corruption, it is well on its way to being the best it can be.

One way to see public administration in action is by attending a city council meeting, whether it be in an urban or rural area, public administration still has a part in each event. As Kettl (2018; p. 244) referenced in his book, there is not a civil system that would be sustainable without strong leadership. This paper will discuss the author’s description, observation, and reflection during a city council meeting.

Kernaghan, K. 2000. The Post-Bureaucratic Organization and Public Services Values. Interational Review of Administrative Sciences 66. 2000, pp. 92-93.

The Civil Service Act of 1883 created the merit system by requiring that appointees to public office be qualified for the job, thereby ending the spoils system.

Abstract: Imperial examination in ancient China was developing based on the nine-rank system. From Sui and Tang dynasties to Guangxu year, Qing dynasty, it took more than 1300 years to evolve. The Imperial Examination is officially called Keju Examination in China, which was an important part of education system of feudal society in ancient China. In the mean time, it was a kind of officer-selecting system as well. It played a significant role in cultivating, selecting, and making use of talents. Modern examination system also takes example by the imperial examinations in ancient China. So we should attach importance to researching and studying it due to its enlightenment to the innovation

All organizations strive to streamline operations, which in turn should lead to saving money. Fighting the wasting of resources should be a top priority for any government entity and particularly for supervisors, managers, and executives. In the public sector this is particularly true because the citizens in effect supply the resources wasted. The public trust should not be abused by careless or needless spending. However, because of the bureaucratic nature of any government agency, some waste cannot readily be avoided. The laws and regulations that have been duly enacted to secure justified expenditures in and of themselves can cause waste.

Over the years the population in California has increased and we are seeing more people enrolled in the social services. We are fortunate to have human services to help the less fortunate. As social workers noted; it is not an easy job to help one’s clients, but are committed to help and make a difference in their life (Merrill-Payne). Social services are comprised of general assistance, food stamps, Medi-Cal, children services, older adult-services, mental health, and drug abuse. There are many non-profit organizations that are there to help the community, but the counties offer many programs that are Medi-Cal based to help the community. Regardless of all the programs offered by the County or any non-profit organizations is the social

The need for financial stringency in public organizations due to budgetary pressures and tax resistance coupled with the need to Managing /balancing budget deficits and provide quality services with a reduction in revenue has always been a major challenge for public organizations. The need to save money and at the same time provide quality services, had forced government agencies to privatize and contract out. Recently, there is greater involvement of the private and nonprofit sector in public service delivery. More and more government functions in service delivery are now carried out by private and nonprofit organization. This is one part attributed to the belief that private organizations can provide services more efficiently and effectively than government operated services. And the other is the fact that it is cost effective and takes a lesser time frame. These two process are indeed unarguably beneficial to the government and private sector as well as the beneficiaries, but they can be also very daunting accompanied with huge challenges especially when not executed in the rightful manner. The case of the crummy contractor by Rainey depicts such a complex situation , where the process of contracting out was poorly conducted. The case highlights the demand for privatization and contracting-out and most importantly some of the challenges of privatization and contracting in government organization. it goes on further to identify some crucial pointed to be