tag:theconversation.com,2011:/au/topics/civil-servants-29286/articlesCivil servants – The Conversation2024-03-26T12:40:09Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2250612024-03-26T12:40:09Z2024-03-26T12:40:09ZPoliticians may rail against the ‘deep state,’ but research shows federal workers are effective and committed, not subversive<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584101/original/file-20240325-22-7ip3p7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2995%2C2043&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A worker at the National Hurricane Center tracks weather over the Gulf of Mexico.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/philippe-papin-hurricane-specialist-at-the-national-news-photo/1494908383">Joe Raedle/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It’s common for political candidates to disparage “the government” even as they run for an office in which they would be part of, yes, running the government. </p>
<p>Often, what they’re referring to is what <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=I_z924QAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">we</a>, as <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=RW9itwwAAAAJ">scholars</a> of the inner workings of democracy, call “the administrative state.” At times, these critics use a label of collective distrust and disapproval for government workers that sounds more sinister: “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/23276665.2023.2249142">the deep state</a>.”</p>
<p>Most people, however, don’t know what government workers do, why they do it or how the government selects them in the first place.</p>
<p>Our years of research about the people who work in the federal government finds that they care deeply about their work, aiding the public and pursuing the stability and integrity of government.</p>
<p>Most of them are devoted civil servants. Across hundreds of interviews and surveys of people who have made their careers in government, what stands out most to us is their commitment to civic duty without regard to partisan politics. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584107/original/file-20240325-23-c14rfc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A drawing of a statue with a caricature of Andrew Jackson riding on a pig." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584107/original/file-20240325-23-c14rfc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584107/original/file-20240325-23-c14rfc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=911&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584107/original/file-20240325-23-c14rfc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=911&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584107/original/file-20240325-23-c14rfc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=911&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584107/original/file-20240325-23-c14rfc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1144&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584107/original/file-20240325-23-c14rfc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1144&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584107/original/file-20240325-23-c14rfc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1144&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">President Andrew Jackson was a proponent of the ‘spoils system’ in which new presidents could hire friends and supporters into government jobs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:In_memorium--our_civil_service_as_it_was.JPG">Thomas Nast, Harper's Weekly, via Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
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<h2>From spoils to merit</h2>
<p>From the country’s founding through 1883, the U.S. federal government relied on what was called a “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/009539979802900606">spoils system</a>” to hire staff. The system got its name from the expression “to the victor goes the spoils.” A newly elected president would distribute government jobs to people who helped him win election.</p>
<p>This system had two primary defects: First, vast numbers of federal jobholders could be displaced every four or eight years; second, many of the new arrivals had no qualifications or experience for the jobs to which they were appointed. </p>
<p>Problems resulting from these defects were smaller than modern Americans might expect, because at that time the federal government was much smaller than it is today and had less to do with Americans’ everyday lives. This method had its defenders, including President Andrew Jackson, who <a href="https://search.worldcat.org/title/7597210">believed that government tasks were relatively simple</a> and anyone could do them.</p>
<p>But even so, the spoils system meant government was not as effective as it could have been – and as the people justifiably expected it to be.</p>
<p>In 1881, President James Garfield was assassinated by a <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/114423/destiny-of-the-republic-by-candice-millard/">man who believed he deserved a government job</a> because of his support for Garfield but didn’t get one. The assassination led to bipartisan passage in Congress of the <a href="https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/pendleton-act">Pendleton Act of 1883</a>. </p>
<p>The law brought sweeping change. It introduced for the first time principles of merit in government hiring: Appointment and advancement were tied to workers’ competence, not their political loyalties or connections. To protect civil servants from political interference, they were given job security: Grounds for firing now revolve around poor performance or misconduct, rather than being a supporter of whichever political party lost the last election.</p>
<p>Nearly <a href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CES9091000001">3 million career civil servants</a> continue to have these protections today. New presidents still get to hire <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/ppo/">roughly 4,000 political appointees</a> with fewer protections.</p>
<p>As a result of these changes and related reforms in the <a href="https://www.eeoc.gov/history/civil-service-reform-act-1978">Civil Service Reform Act of 1978</a>, the U.S. government is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/padm.12945">far more effective today</a> than it was prior to the Pendleton Act. </p>
<p>In fact, U.S. civil service institutions, built on merit-based appointments, merit-based advancement and security of employment, have become the <a href="https://doi.org/10.33545/26646021.2020.v2.i1b.40">standard for democratic governments</a> around the globe. U.S. federal workers are generally <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/23276665.2023.2249142">high-performing, impartial and minimally corrupt</a> compared with other countries’ civil servants.</p>
<h2>Increasing government responsibilities</h2>
<p>Since 1776, the U.S. population has increased <a href="https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2019/07/july-fourth-celebrating-243-years-of-independence.html">from about 2.5 million people to over 330 million today</a>. With its growing size and with technological advances, the federal government now provides a great many services, including <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/19/opinion/trump-deep-state.html">protecting its citizens</a> from complex environmental, health and international threats.</p>
<p>Environmental Protection Agency employees help maintain clean air and water and clean up toxic waste dumps to protect human health. Department of Energy scientists and managers oversee the treatment and disposal of <a href="https://wwnorton.com/books/The-Fifth-Risk/">radioactive nuclear waste</a> from our weapons program and power plants. National Park Service staff manage over <a href="https://www.doi.gov/sites/doi.gov/files/uploads/fy2021-bib-bh081.pdf">85 million acres of public land across all 50 states</a>. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s forecasters’ advance detection of potential weather emergencies enable early warnings and evacuations from high-risk areas, <a href="https://wwnorton.com/books/The-Fifth-Risk/">which has saved countless lives</a>.</p>
<p>Federal Emergency Management Agency employees aid survivors of natural disasters. That agency also subsidizes flood insurance, making home insurance available in flood-prone areas. The U.S. government additionally provides <a href="https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/federal-government-pays-farmers-doesnt-mean-farmers-are-fans">billions of dollars in subsidies</a> per year to support farmers and maintain food security. </p>
<p>These programs are all administered by government employees: environmental scientists, lawyers, analysts, diplomats, security officers, postal workers, engineers, foresters, doctors and many other specialized career civil servants. Andrew Jackson’s idea of government work no longer applies: You do not want just anyone managing hazardous waste, sending a space shuttle into orbit or managing public lands constituting <a href="https://www.gao.gov/managing-federal-lands-and-waters">one-third of the country’s territory</a>.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584104/original/file-20240325-26-idylq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="People wearing white helmets and white jackets slice open meat carcasses." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584104/original/file-20240325-26-idylq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584104/original/file-20240325-26-idylq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584104/original/file-20240325-26-idylq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584104/original/file-20240325-26-idylq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584104/original/file-20240325-26-idylq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=558&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584104/original/file-20240325-26-idylq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=558&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584104/original/file-20240325-26-idylq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=558&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">U.S. Department of Agriculture food safety inspectors examine meat at a processing plant.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/AgSecretaryFoodSafety/51f2053e7b3841c5b9343ebff015c7c3/photo">AP Photo/Nati Harnik</a></span>
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<h2>A dedicated workforce</h2>
<p>Research, including our own, shows that these workers are not self-serving elites but rather dedicated and committed public servants.</p>
<p>That’s <a href="https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/the-new-case-for-bureaucracy/book238024">generally true</a> even of Internal Revenue Service staffers, postal service clerks and other bureaucratic functionaries who may not earn much public respect. Federal employees <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/phantoms-of-a-beleaguered-republic-9780197656945?cc=us&lang=en&">mirror demographics in the United States</a> and are hired, trained and legally obligated to uphold the Constitution and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/725313">serve the public interest</a>.</p>
<p>One of us, Jaime Kucinskas, with sociologist and law professor <a href="https://law.seattleu.edu/faculty/directory/profiles/zylan-yvonne.html">Yvonne Zylan</a>, tracked the experiences of dozens of federal employees across the EPA, Department of Health and Human Services, State Department, Department of Interior, Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security and various other agencies during the Trump administration. That research found these workers were dedicated to serving the public and the Constitution, upholding the missions of their agencies and democracy, and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/725313">working to support leadership and the elected president</a>. </p>
<p>Even though 80% of the centrist and Democratic Party-leaning government workers they spoke with did not believe in the ideas behind the Trump presidency, they were careful to follow legal official orders from the administration.</p>
<p>They noted the importance of speaking up while leaders deliberated what to do. After political appointees and supervisors made their decisions, however, even the civil servants who most valued speaking truth to power acknowledged, “Then it’s time to execute,” as one State Department employee told Kucinskas. “As career professionals we have an obligation to carry out lawful instructions, even if we don’t fully agree with it.”</p>
<p>Another international affairs expert told Kucinskas, “People have voted and this is where we’re at. And we’re not going to change things. We don’t do that here.” He said if political appointees “want to do what you consider bad decisions … we do our best to give more information. … And if they still decide to do (it), then we say okay, that’s what we’re going to do.”</p>
<p>He was firm in this loyal and deferential position to the elected president and his administration in 2018 and again in a 2020 follow-up interview. “If you want to be an advocate, you can leave and work in a different sector,” he concluded. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584106/original/file-20240325-20-pr6w27.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="People wearing reflective safety vests stand in a clearing." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584106/original/file-20240325-20-pr6w27.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584106/original/file-20240325-20-pr6w27.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584106/original/file-20240325-20-pr6w27.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584106/original/file-20240325-20-pr6w27.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584106/original/file-20240325-20-pr6w27.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584106/original/file-20240325-20-pr6w27.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584106/original/file-20240325-20-pr6w27.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Environmental Protection Agency workers tour the site of an abandoned mercury mine in California slated for cleanup.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/environmental-protection-agency-remedial-project-manager-news-photo/2041454729">Jane Tyska/Digital First Media/East Bay Times via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Some decided to do just that: More than a quarter of the upper-level government workers Kucinskas spoke with left their positions during the Trump administration. Although exits typically rise during presidential transitions, <a href="https://academic.oup.com/jpart/article/31/2/451/5983893">they typically remain under 10%</a>, making this degree of high-level exits unusually high.</p>
<p>Even as many Americans express frustration with the president, Congress and the <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2022/06/06/the-people-of-government-career-employees-political-appointees-and-candidates-for-office/">federal government as a whole</a>, however, we believe it is important not to take for granted what federal government workers are doing well. U.S. citizens benefit from effective federal services, thanks in part because the government hires and rewards civil servants because of their merit rather than loyalty.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225061/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Years of research about the people who work in the federal government finds that most of them are devoted civil servants who are committed to civic duty without regard to partisan politics.Jaime Kucinskas, Associate Professor of Sociology, Hamilton CollegeJames L. Perry, Professor of Public and Environmental Affairs Emeritus, Indiana UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2020812023-03-27T09:34:57Z2023-03-27T09:34:57ZDominic Raab’s defence against bullying claims is that he is always ‘professional’ – but that doesn’t stack up<p>Is Dominic Raab, the deputy prime minister, a bully? This is what Adam Tolley KC, the barrister leading the <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1119738/2022.11.23_Terms_of_Reference_-_Investigation.pdf">investigation into Raab’s behaviour towards civil servants</a>, is attempting to find out. Is Raab simply a tough boss who sets high, “professional” standards for his team? Or does he make unreasonable demands of colleagues and humiliate those who fail to fulfil them?</p>
<p>Raab has said he can’t comment in detail while Tolley’s review is ongoing but has responded to the accusations by repeatedly asserting that he has acted <a href="https://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2022-11-16b.649.0">“professionally”</a> at all times. Speaking in more detail about his behaviour towards staff, Raab has <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/dominic-raab-government-deputy-prime-minister-justice-secretary-nadhim-zahawi-b2266556.html">said</a>:</p>
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<p>I think what people want to know is that their government ministers are striving every sinew to deliver for them and I make no apologies for having high standards, for trying to drive things forward.</p>
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<p>So not a bully but just a professional with high standards.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/dominic-raab-claims-are-more-akin-to-abusive-supervision-than-bullying-199334">Dominic Raab claims are more akin to 'abusive supervision' than bullying</a>
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<p>In citing professionalism as an excuse, Raab has placed the concept at the heart of this story. What does it mean to be professional? The sociology of the professions has a <a href="https://bit.ly/3JyNzXL">long and distinguished history</a>, and in recent years management scholars have revived and updated this field of <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-oxford-handbook-of-professional-service-firms-9780199682393?cc=gb&lang=en&">research</a>. Professions scholarship is primarily concerned with understanding how occupations gain and defend their professional status, analysing the justification (or lack of justification) for the exceptional <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1988-97883-000">rewards accruing from that status</a>.</p>
<h2>Defining professionalism</h2>
<p>As the research literature has evolved, theories of the professions have shifted from questions of structure and function to focus on power and privilege, culminating in the contemporary <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cars.12364">preoccupation with process and practice</a>.</p>
<p>Through these shifting sands of scholarship, two consistent elements emerge. First, that extended training is required to develop specialist expertise and reach advanced qualification. From this “occupational closure” comes the ability to exclude others from the profession and <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Professions-and-Power-Routledge-Revivals/Johnson/p/book/9781138203563">charge a premium for services</a>.</p>
<p>And second, ethical standards, which are an integral component of a professional’s extended apprenticeship and formal qualifications. From this training comes the traditional right to self-regulate within the professions. At least in the past, professionals were able to <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/P/bo5958556.html">maintain their monopolistic position</a> free from external regulation.</p>
<p>Underpinning both these elements comes trust. Clients entrust professionals with their most complex problems in the expectation that they will deliver exceptional quality work to the highest possible standards. To call someone “professional” may simply mean that you think they can be trusted to do high-quality work.</p>
<p>It is worth noting that there is nothing in the definition of the term “professional” about working exceptionally long hours or pushing yourself and your staff to the limit.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-bullying-in-politics-is-a-matter-of-democracy-194686">Why bullying in politics is a matter of democracy</a>
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<p>But in equating high standards and long hours with professionalism, Raab is perhaps taking his cue from his early experiences in the City legal environment. In recent decades, the concepts of professionalism and commercialism have become blended in elite professional service firms. In this context, the goal of delighting the client by delivering the highest quality service to exceptionally demanding deadlines can translate into some fairly ferocious working practices. Indeed, the damaging consequences of overwork have become an important theme of professional service firm scholarship in recent years.</p>
<h2>Are politicians professionals?</h2>
<p>But Raab is now a politician – and they are not really “professionals” according to the criteria set out above. They do not have extended training in a specialised area of expertise. They are, in fact, expected to be generalists. And there are no barriers to entry because anyone can run for election – though of course there can be high barriers to getting elected to become an MP.</p>
<p>Nor are politicians socialised into a commonly understood set of ethical standards. On the contrary, there is enormous variation in how they behave and what they consider appropriate. In recent years, there have been many highly publicised, gross ethical breaches which have led to attempts to create and enforce ethical standards. While professionals these days can expect to be asked to comply with externally set standards, politicians remain essentially self-regulating.</p>
<p>Of course, Raab may not really be using the word “professional” in this precise way. Rather, he is associating it with a level of hard work and high standards. But surely Raab does not believe that professionals are unique in their commitment to these.</p>
<p>Raab appears to be seeking to justify tough and perhaps at times abrasive behaviour as simply being a sign that he takes his work seriously and that he expects others to do so the same. But with the exception of the former home secretary <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/937010/Findings_of_the_Independent_Adviser.pdf">Priti Patel</a>, no other minister in recent times – no matter how demanding they are – has been formally accused of bullying. Michael Gove, for example, is famously demanding of his staff but has not been accused of bullying.</p>
<p>When you call someone “professional” you are saying that you trust them to do an excellent job and to behave with the utmost integrity. It never has been, and never should be, used as an excuse for bad or questionable behaviour.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/202081/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Laura Empson has received a series of research grants from the Economic and Social Research Council of Great Britain for her research into professionals and professional work. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stefan Stern does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The deputy prime minister insists he just has high expectations of his staff but that is not what ‘professionalism’ really means.Laura Empson, Professor in the Management of Professional Service Firms, Bayes Business School, City, University of LondonStefan Stern, Visiting Professor of Management Practice, Bayes Business School, City, University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1993342023-02-08T17:36:07Z2023-02-08T17:36:07ZDominic Raab claims are more akin to ‘abusive supervision’ than bullying<p>Prime Minister Rishi Sunak continues to refuse to suspend the deputy prime minister, Dominic Raab, from office while accusations that he has behaved inappropriately towards staff are investigated. The government has confirmed that lawyer Adam Tolley is leading an investigation into two complaints made about Raab’s conduct while at the Foreign Office and the Ministry of Justice. </p>
<p>However, there are reports of many more accusations being made against him. The BBC reports there are <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-64555911">eight formal complaints</a> currently standing against Raab, while the Guardian has reported that one complaint concerned <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/feb/05/dominic-raab-more-civil-servants-in-bullying-complaint-than-previously-thought">27 members of his staff</a>. </p>
<p>Raab has denied the accusations, and there is no formal mechanism for a deputy prime minister to be suspended. But allowing him to stay on in power, while receiving tacit support from high-ranking Tory politicians, nevertheless risks sending the signal that such behaviour is tolerated.</p>
<p>Sunak has indicated that Raab would be sacked if the investigation finds that he did behave inappropriately but insists he won’t move against him before then, stating on February 7: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The independent adviser is conducting his investigation, I can’t prejudge the outcome of that investigation, it’s right that it concludes. But as people have seen from how I’ve acted in the past, when I’m presented with conclusive independent findings that someone in my government has not acted with the integrity or standards that I would expect of them, I won’t hesitate to take swift and decisive action. That’s what I’ve done in the past. But with regard to this situation, it’s right that we let the independent process continue.</p>
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<p>It would be possible for Sunak to sack Raab and then reappoint him were he cleared by the investigation. It has been suggested that Sunak does not do so partly to reward his loyalty. If that is the case, it would suggest that those in power are prioritising their pre-existing social connections over the wellbeing of their staff. Those who have made complaints may also feel their experiences are being invalidated.</p>
<p>Jake Berry, the former chairman of the Conservative Party has said that action should be taken against Raab immediately, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-64514088">telling the BBC</a>: “It would be very bizarre if you had someone in any other workplace who wasn’t suspended pending that investigation.”</p>
<p>The situation unfolding around Raab is routinely described as “bullying” but he literature around workplace mistreatment points to something else. Workplace bullying can describe what happens between colleagues of relatively equal position, but <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1468-2370.2012.00339.x?casa_token=pA9tr0QDvVcAAAAA%3A4ezJ30VzHw5283arFBvIqSH1YLDPmDTnv9CN5ns-IrMvzcbjveFtkM5bUcYTTC4g8jMr1nfgok5341E">negative behaviours wear victims down</a> so that they feel “powerles” compared to their bullies. Given that Raab is a senior minister and the deputy prime minister, if the accusations are true we are potentially dealing with something different here.</p>
<h2>Abusive supervision</h2>
<p>Raab holds significant formal and informal power over his staff. His formal power stems from his very high position in the organisational hierarchy. He is the minister and the people accusing him are, as far as we know, civil servants (it is not clear whether any of the complaints come from people other than civil servants). </p>
<p>Raab’s informal power comes from the social power he has over staff. He has the ability to influence their careers and experience in the workplace. A government minister is at the centre of a government department. Power is very much centralised towards them – that includes people’s career trajectory. </p>
<p>Even without direct power to hire and fire, as someone whose voice matters in Whitehall, Raab can informally influence people’s career paths – for example, telling someone not to hire a certain person. </p>
<p>With all this in mind, what Raab is being accused of is akin to abusive supervision. This term describes interactions in which followers perceive their supervisors to engage in hostile verbal and non-verbal behaviours, such as hurtful remarks, public humiliation or scapegoating. </p>
<p>While abusive supervision can be classed as a type of workplace bullying, one can argue that abusive supervision can be even more detrimental because supervisors often have formal power to influence an employee’s life at work.</p>
<p>Abusive supervision can also affect more than one target, so you may have whole teams of employees who feel victimised. Academic <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0149206307300812?journalCode=joma">research</a> establishes that abusive supervision can lead to worse employee performance, worse mental health, and can even affect employees’ family lives. </p>
<p>A recent study suggests that abusive supervision undermines <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09585192.2022.2070715">“public service motivation”</a>, which is an employee’s motivation to work in public institutions and “for the greater good”. This is surely a detrimental sign for civil servants. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-bullying-in-politics-is-a-matter-of-democracy-194686">Why bullying in politics is a matter of democracy</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>This kind of behaviour can be very detrimental to the people on the receiving end of it, and it can also harm organisations. If these behaviours become prevalent, abusive supervision is normalised and can even end up being promoted within an organisation’s culture. That is, people do not find such behaviours “out of the ordinary” or come to expect them as part of the job. </p>
<p>Employees may feel they have to emulate, or model, abusive behaviours to get ahead, as they have observed other senior figures behaving that way. </p>
<p>Whatever the investigation into Raab concludes, failing to send a signal that these issues are being taken seriously from the outset sends precisely the wrong signal.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/199334/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kara Ng does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>RIshi Sunak has said he won’t suspend the deputy prime minister while dozens of accusations about his conduct are investigated.Kara Ng, Presidential Fellow in Organisational Psychology, University of ManchesterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1452572020-09-02T10:00:21Z2020-09-02T10:00:21ZWhy it matters that so many senior civil servants are quitting under Boris Johnson<p>A recent spate of departures at the top level of the British civil service is more than a matter of personnel change. It’s the result of a worrying shift in thinking within the government. </p>
<p>Mark Sedwill, the cabinet secretary and head of the civil service, resigned in June after he became the target for hostile anonymous briefings and toxic social media. Jonathan Slater, permanent secretary at the Department for Education, is also to step down following the <a href="https://theconversation.com/gavin-williamson-ofqual-and-the-great-a-level-blame-game-144766">exam results debacle</a> of this summer. Gavin Williamson, the minister in charge of his department, meanwhile, appears to be facing no consequences whatsoever. </p>
<p>Slater is only one of a series of permanent secretaries who have left their posts over the past six months. The Home Office, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Ministry of Justice and Housing and Local Government have all seen their most senior civil servants depart. </p>
<p>The relationship between the Boris Johnson administration and its senior civil servants was poor from the start but has rapidly deteriorated. It is now probably the worst it has ever been. Tensions are predicted to worsen and it’s possible that the senior civil service will never be the same again. At times it looks as though the UK is heading towards the <a href="https://theconversation.com/dominic-cummings-wants-to-add-more-political-appointees-to-the-civil-service-heres-why-thats-a-problem-129097">American model</a> where the most senior advisers are brought in with each new government.</p>
<p>The civil service has long operated around the idea that civil servants advise but ministers decide – and therefore take responsibility when things go wrong. That changed significantly, like so much else, under Margaret Thatcher. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://oneworld-publications.com/the-blunders-of-our-governments.html">The Blunders of our Governments</a> Anthony King and Ivor Crew, two of the UK’s most distinguished political scientists, canter though a cornucopia of government cock-ups of the past 40 years. They also trace the origin of a change in relations between ministers and civil servants back to Thatcher. They note that she had a personal preference for proactive, ideological ministers who took firm control of their departments. In so doing, she recast the role of civil servants. They were no longer there to offer impartial advice as equal partners in the delivery of good government but were to be enthusiastic deliverers of whatever policy ideas or ideology her strong-minded ministers brought to the table.</p>
<p>King and Crowe also reveal how this changing relationship persisted throughout the subsequent administrations of New Labour, the Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition and the Conservatives. Ministers, even those responsible for the most serious and serial blunders, are seldom sacked and almost never resign.</p>
<h2>Rise of the SpAds</h2>
<p>Now, we see one senior civil servant after another being forced out. There had always been the odd involuntary resignation in the past but, if a civil servant fell out with a powerful minister, more often they would be moved away from that minister to another department or government agency. So what has changed?</p>
<p>One key factor has been the rise of the special advisers (<a href="https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/explainers/special-advisers">SpAds</a>) to new heights of power and influence. Under Dominic Cummings, the prime minister’s chief adviser, SpAds sit at the very centre of government and wield unprecedented power. </p>
<p>SpAds are political appointees that give party political advice, and their primary interest is their minister, his or her interests, his or her party and his or her political agenda. They do not act in the public interest or give impartial advice as is expected of civil servants. They will try to influence policy development and advise on how policy proposals will play with voters for political ends. They are unlikely to push back or fundamentally challenge their ministers’ ambitions. </p>
<p>First introduced in 1964, special advisers were often recruited for their expertise in particular policy areas and were usually attached to what Whitehall calls the major delivery departments, such as health, education or the Home Office. In these roles they usually worked constructively and collaboratively with the civil servants providing alternative perspectives and expertise welcomed by the departments. They were increasingly accompanied by media advisers and communication experts such as <a href="https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/The-Slow-Downfall-of-Margaret-Thatcher-by-Bernard-Ingham-Iain-Dale-editor/9781785904783">Bernard Ingham</a> and <a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/107/1074394/the-blair-years/9780099514756.html">Alistair Campbell</a>, who primarily influenced the presentation of government policy and interests. </p>
<p>When Johnson was elected, Cummings moved rapidly to consolidate and centralise power as soon as he was appointed, taking direct control of all SpAds across Whitehall. Cummings is a long-term critic of the civil service, calling it “<a href="https://www.civilserviceworld.com/professions/article/permanent-civil-service-an-idea-for-the-history-books-new-no10-adviser-dominic-cummings-views-on-whitehall">an idea for the history books</a>” and has been particularly scathing about the role of its permanent secretaries. He has a personal vision of what he believes the government should be doing and he pursues it with an almost evangelical zeal. </p>
<p>Sedwill reportedly had a difficult relationship with Cummings and his departure is seen as a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/jun/28/mark-sedwill-expected-to-quit-as-uks-top-civil-servant">victory</a> for the PM’s adviser. His successor, Simon Case is a 41-year-old who has worked in the past as private secretary to former prime minister David Cameron, and was part of the Brexit negotiations. Having left in 2018 to become Prince William’s private secretary, he returned to Number 10 earlier this year to help with the government’s coronavirus response. </p>
<p>The shift in power is palpable. The senior civil servants who are supposed to offer impartial advice and “speak truth to power” are the clear losers. So is public discourse, democratic government and the public interest.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/145257/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Murphy was a Senior Civil Servant between 2000 and 2009. He served in four Whitehall Departments. </span></em></p>Chief adviser Dominic Cummings doesn’t have much time for the civil service, preferring political appointees instead.Peter Murphy, Professor of Public Policy and Management, Nottingham Trent UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1326322020-03-04T12:31:47Z2020-03-04T12:31:47ZThe UK government tried to reshape the civil service with wacky psychology before – here’s how that went<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/317795/original/file-20200228-24664-1k1jjb0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=62%2C52%2C3132%2C2069&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Dominic Cummings is looking for 'cognitive diversity' but history suggests that's not easy to define.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">PA</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Dominic Cummings, special adviser to the UK prime minister, has been continuing his shake-up of the civil service. Most notably, his plea for “<a href="https://dominiccummings.com/2020/01/02/two-hands-are-a-lot-were-hiring-data-scientists-project-managers-policy-experts-assorted-weirdos/">misfits and weirdos</a>” resulted in the appointment of Andrew Sabisky, who was forced to resign after his eugenicist views on the supposed link between race and intelligence came to light.</p>
<p>Cummings is re-imagining the civil service as a force for disruption and innovation along the lines of Silicon Valley. He has been open about his infatuation with the Valley’s peculiar brand of technological utopianism, which imagines a future in which AI and computer forecasting are used to guide policy.</p>
<p>We should be wary of interpreting this shake up as truly progressive. This vision of the future is <a href="https://www.issuelab.org/resource/tech-leavers-study-a-first-of-its-kind-analysis-of-why-people-volunarily-left-jobs-in-tech.html">overwhelmingly white and male</a>. Cummings shuns what he calls “gender identity diversity blah blah” and advocates for “true cognitive diversity”. </p>
<p>However, his is not the first attempt at remodelling the civil service with the help of pseudoscientific thinking. In fact, the civil service experimented with an eccentric approach to recruitment in the 1940s. This post-war scheme also mobilised pseudoscientific concepts of intelligence, character and personality, all of which reflected a discriminatory set of values as to who was “fit” to do the job.</p>
<p>The civil service’s experiment in psychological methods of recruiting was directly influenced by a method of selection pioneered by the War Office. Concerns about the high failure rate of junior officers undergoing training prompted officials in the War Office to rethink their recruitment process. Following experiments by army psychiatrists, the first War Office Selection Board was established in Edinburgh in 1942, with others opening across Britain that same year.</p>
<p>Under this new scheme, candidates were taken to a country house and given a <a href="http://tihr-archive.tavinstitute.org/recreating-war-officer-selection-boards-archivists-experience/">series of assessments over the course of three days</a>. Potential officers took part in a role-play scenario to test their decision-making and teamwork skills as well as a series of what were called “personality pointers”. These included a word association test, a self-description exercise and a “thematic appreciation test”. Here, candidates were required to make up stories using a series of images as prompts. These were analysed for evidence of their aptitude and mental capability for the officer class.</p>
<p>The Treasury requested the War Office’s help in adapting this system to select civil service officers for the new Organisation and Methods division. This section was tasked with increasing efficiency in the civil service following its rapid expansion as a result of the war. The new “Organisation and Methods man” possessed initiative, flexibility and independence. Recruiters saw these traits as new qualities suitable for a reformed, streamlined civil service. They were to be as important in the selection of candidates as the old personality traits of reliability, accuracy and knowledge of precedent.</p>
<p>This experiment proved flawed, however. Senior members of the civil service and experienced members of the War Office Selection Boards came together to grade those who took the experimental test. Both groups gave wildly different marks to candidates.</p>
<p>The War Office even failed some candidates. And since everyone who took the experimental test was already employed in the civil service, this was a serious problem. </p>
<h2>An unflattering postmortem</h2>
<p>All this meant that when the selection process was held up to scientific scrutiny it appeared to fall apart. The report on the experiment tried hard to work out why this might be the case, spending pages upon pages on increasingly complicated statistics.</p>
<p>What none of these calculations did is challenge the basic, and flawed, assumption behind the experiment – personality traits cannot, as they thought, be objectively observed as incontrovertible facts. They are subjective judgements, the result of the interaction between the observer and the observed.</p>
<p>The role that the fledgling discipline of psychology played in these recruitment schemes was a discriminatory one. The personality tests were an attempt to weed out people with “immature” personalities: a euphemism for homosexuality. Potential junior officers or civil servant guinea pigs took intelligence tests alongside the “personality pointers”. Although they were seen as an objective test of natural intellect, they often reflected no more than the individual’s level of schooling, at a time when education provision was even more unequal than it is today. These intelligence tests have their modern counterpart in the IQ tests <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/feb/19/sabisky-row-dominic-cummings-criticised-over-designer-babies-post">so admired by Cummings and Sabisky</a>.</p>
<p>Although these tests were designed in response to criticisms of the army’s elitism, the ways in which the tests attempted to police the boundaries of who was suitable ended up reflecting the same social prejudices the army and civil service had long struggled with.</p>
<p>Cummings’ call for “misfits and weirdos” is similarly superficial. His slavish devotion to techie solutions will continue to favour white, middle-class male computer scientists who don’t look any different from the “Oxbridge humanities graduates” who have tended to make up the civil service.</p>
<p>True diversity looks very different from Cummings’ vision. His and Sabisky’s worrying views on intelligence indicate how little space there is for neurodiverse individuals, disabled people or people of colour within Whitehall. Criticisms of the establishment are always welcome, but what the civil service and the War Office selection boards tell us is that wacky means of recruitment can be a smokescreen obscuring any real progress.</p>
<p>A supposedly meritocratic means of selection, either by personality test or by blogpost, hides the assumptions and biases of those doing the recruiting. More often than not, people pick those who resemble them physically and socially – and who share the same values. A commitment to true diversity is commendable. Unfortunately, I do not see that commitment from Cummings.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/132632/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Grace Whorrall-Campbell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Dominic Cummings should read up on a deeply flawed experiment from the 1940s before he reads through those job applications.Grace Whorrall-Campbell, PhD Candidate in History, University of CambridgeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1294182020-01-08T11:43:42Z2020-01-08T11:43:42ZI’ve studied the ‘weirdos’ Dominic Cummings is talking about – I’m not sure he really understands who they are<p>In a now infamous <a href="https://dominiccummings.com/2020/01/02/two-hands-are-a-lot-were-hiring-data-scientists-project-managers-policy-experts-assorted-weirdos/">blog post</a>, Dominic Cummings, the prime minister’s special adviser, declared he wanted to hire “misfits” to upset the stagnant equilibrium that he sees in the civil service. Rather than Oxbridge graduates, he wants “weirdos” and “true cognitive diversity”.</p>
<p>Part of Cummings’ inspiration for the kind of worker he hopes to find comes from the pages of William Gibson’s novels. Gibson made his name in science fiction circles as the “godfather of cyberpunk”, revitalising the genre with his debut novel, <a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-494053335/neuromancer-cyberpunk">Neuromancer</a>. This gave a popular blueprint for understanding the possibilities of the nascent internet and even coined the term “cyberspace”.</p>
<p>In his blog, Cummings specifically cited two characters – Cayce from Gibson’s 2003 novel <a href="https://newleftreview.org/issues/II23/articles/fredric-jameson-fear-and-loathing-in-globalization">Pattern Recognition</a> and Tito, from Spook Country, published in 2007 as a sequel. He argues:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We need some true wild cards, artists, people who never went to university and fought their way out of an appalling hell hole, weirdos from William Gibson novels like that girl hired by Bigend as a brand “diviner” who feels sick at the sight of Tommy Hilfiger or that Chinese-Cuban free runner from a crime family hired by the KGB.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Cummings specifically asks that people who are struggling to find an environment to channel extraordinary talents apply. The idea seems to be that Cummings wants free thinkers who reject social conformity. But I have researched Gibson’s work for my PhD thesis. Cummings appears to have somewhat misunderstood the novels if he thinks this is what the characters represent. </p>
<p>Cayce and Tito both find themselves outside of society, but Cummings seems to think that this outsider status is a function of their exceptional skills. It’s actually more a function of the society in which they live.</p>
<p>Cayce suffers from an unusual allergy to marketing – she reacts badly to derivative branding, vomiting in response to the simulacra of simulacra represented by brands such as Tommy Hilfiger. Her “allergy” acts as a sixth sense for authenticity, making her valuable as a brand consultant and a “coolhunter”. She can observe trends at an LA urban basketball court, or in downtown Shinjuku, and predict which trends will go viral on a global scale. Her opinion on marketing and all things cool is highly sought after, but she also suffers from apophenia – “faulty pattern recognition” – or what we might more commonly refer to as paranoia.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/309022/original/file-20200108-107209-b2471b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/309022/original/file-20200108-107209-b2471b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309022/original/file-20200108-107209-b2471b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309022/original/file-20200108-107209-b2471b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309022/original/file-20200108-107209-b2471b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309022/original/file-20200108-107209-b2471b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309022/original/file-20200108-107209-b2471b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pattern Recognition: a novel in which the weirdos aren’t exactly thriving.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>She is rocked by the experience of being rootless in a globalised world – a condition typical of the kind of freelance work in which she is engaged and familiar to those participating in the so-called “<a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38930048">gig economy</a>” in the real world. She feels as though she has left her soul behind by moving from job to job at breakneck speed and she is homeless when we meet her. Even though she is well paid (unlike many undertaking insecure work), her instability robs her of her sense of self, distracting her from her day job and blinding her to genuinely dangerous situations. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, Tito lives in a single room above a Chinese restaurant, hiding in the shadows. He works as a courier for spies and illicit operations, using his multilingual background and his experience as a migrant and as a member of a crime family to survive in the underworld. Cayce is hired by Bigend, a businessman with interests that all come back to the desire to exploit new technologies before anyone else has the chance to understand them – whether Cummings sees himself in this Machiavellian, vampiric role is a matter for speculation.</p>
<p>Both characters live in a miasma of precarity, using their skills by necessity as a means of survival. Tito is highly talented, but his unofficial status sees him attacked by adversaries hired by shadowy forces, his outsider status weaponised against him. Not only does this endanger his life, it endangers the sensitive projects on which he is put to work – a reminder that having unprotected workers at the heart of government might be a security risk for both the individual and the institution.</p>
<h2>Workers’ rights for weirdos</h2>
<p>Gibson is known for the maxim, “<a href="https://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/01/24/future-has-arrived/">the future is already here – it’s just not very evenly distributed</a>”. And Cummings seems to be describing just such a world for the people he wants to hire. He shows little respect for the rules of hiring and firing, warning his out-of-the-box “misfit” employees, “I’ll bin you within weeks if you don’t fit – don’t complain later because I made it clear now”. Many of his new hires, he says, should be “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/jan/03/dominic-cummings-call-for-no-10-staff-may-break-employment-law">young</a>” – a specification that many have suggested breaches employment law. </p>
<p>Nor should his new hires expect much by way of support. Cummings thinks they should not be subject “to the horrors of ‘Human Resources’ (which also obviously need a bonfire)”.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/309024/original/file-20200108-107214-ircv0h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/309024/original/file-20200108-107214-ircv0h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=838&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309024/original/file-20200108-107214-ircv0h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=838&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309024/original/file-20200108-107214-ircv0h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=838&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309024/original/file-20200108-107214-ircv0h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1053&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309024/original/file-20200108-107214-ircv0h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1053&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309024/original/file-20200108-107214-ircv0h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1053&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Spook Country’s Tito might actually quite like a visit from the HR department.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The theme is very much putting innovation above workers’ rights, but these concepts are not mutually exclusive. Cummings is well aware that the changing technological landscape will offer opportunities to wield and cement political power in ways that cannot (as yet) be predicted – but his excitement in taking advantage of this unstable historical moment seems to have blinded him to the importance of workers’ rights. He wants the best and offers them nothing by way of protection in return.</p>
<p>For brilliant weirdos like Cayce and Tito, workers’ rights buy the loyalty and security that money cannot. Wishing for the talents of a brilliant weirdo should not mean emulating terrible – and dangerous – fictional working conditions. When Cummings rails against stagnation, he should be careful what he wishes for. The insecurity of workers is the insecurity of the institution.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/129418/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anna McFarlane does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Boris Johnson’s adviser is asking job applicants to give him their all. And in return? He’ll fire them on the spot if they don’t fit in.Anna McFarlane, British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow, University of GlasgowLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1290972019-12-18T15:56:25Z2019-12-18T15:56:25ZDominic Cummings wants to add more political appointees to the civil service – here’s why that’s a problem<p>Civil servants in Whitehall are worried. One of the first items on the agenda of the new conservative government is reforming the civil service. There are plans to restructure some government departments, close others and <a href="https://www.civilserviceworld.com/articles/news/civil-service-hiring-and-firing-rules-set-review-cummings-and-johnson-plot-whitehall">move functions around</a>.</p>
<p>But it doesn’t stop with structural change. The prime minister’s chief policy adviser Dominic Cummings has long envisaged major reforms for the civil service. According to Cummings, Whitehall is staffed by “<a href="https://dominiccummings.com/2014/10/30/the-hollow-men-ii-some-reflections-on-westminster-and-whitehall-dysfunction/">hollow men</a>” who are plagued with group think and, he believes, would rather play it safe than get things done. To address this dire situation, Cummings has put forward a range of solutions including changing the way <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/12/14/boris-johnson-plans-radical-overhaul-civil-service-guarantee/">senior civil servants are appointed</a>.</p>
<p>One idea that Cummings is particularly fond of is making greater use of politically appointed experts to staff top jobs in the civil service. This is hardly new, of course. Until the middle of the 19th century, the UK civil service was largely staffed by political appointees. In 1854, a <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1954.tb01719.x">report</a> by Stanford Northcote and C. E. Trevelyan, two senior civil servants, pointed out that this method of staffing the civil service led to a system run by “the unambitious, the indolent or the incapable”. </p>
<p>The report therefore recommended civil servants be appointed on merit by an independent body rather than on the basis of their political patronage. These reforms created the basis for the independent civil service which largely persists up to today.</p>
<p>However, political appointees began to reappear <a href="https://www.civitas.org.uk/content/files/thereturnofpoliticalpatronage.pdf">during the 1960s</a>. The first special advisers of the modern era were appointed by Harold Wilson, who brought in two highly respected economists. Their role was to conduct the government’s battles with a largely conservative civil service.</p>
<p>In 1974, Wilson increased the number of special advisers from a handful to 30. During the years of Conservative government that followed, the number of special advisers stayed fairly static, but they became younger. They were often appointed less for their expertise and more for their political commitments. When Tony Blair’s Labour government came to power in 1997, the number of special advisers almost doubled from 38 to 72. They not only increased in power but also in influence. This trend only continued. By 2015, David Cameron had 95. The latest figures available from December 2018 <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/special-adviser-data-releases-numbers-and-costs-december-2018">identify 99 special advisers</a>.</p>
<p>This may not sound like a lot when compared to the 400,000 plus civil servants. However, special advisers often have significant power and influence. They often oversee and manage the activities of civil servants, acting as liaison between them and politicians, helping shape the agenda within the civil service.</p>
<h2>Learning the ropes</h2>
<p>If Cummings gets his way, the number and influence of these political appointees is likely to grow significantly. While his lengthy blog posts make the case for drawing in outside expertise, there is evidence that being too reliant on politically appointed advisers can be dangerous. Much of this comes from the United States, which operates on a patronage system. Each incoming administration can make around 4,000 political appointments in the <a href="https://presidentialtransition.org/workstream/appointments/">federal government agencies</a>.</p>
<p>Champions of political appointees claim they are likely to be more skilled and therefore more able to get the job done. This is only partly true. A study of the US federal government programmes found that political appointees did indeed tend to have higher levels of education and <a href="https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1468-2508.2007.00608.x">more varied experience than career bureaucrats</a>. But federal programmes run by political appointees were systematically rated as less effective than those run by career civil servants.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/307716/original/file-20191218-11904-1fg3b83.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/307716/original/file-20191218-11904-1fg3b83.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307716/original/file-20191218-11904-1fg3b83.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307716/original/file-20191218-11904-1fg3b83.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307716/original/file-20191218-11904-1fg3b83.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307716/original/file-20191218-11904-1fg3b83.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307716/original/file-20191218-11904-1fg3b83.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">It takes time to find your way around in Whitehall.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This is, in part, because it takes a long time for a political appointee to learn the ropes in a public sector organisation. Newcomers to the civil service can bring a fresh perspective, but they also lack the detailed knowledge of the process of implementing their ideas. It can often take years to learn this, by which time political appointees have often grown frustrated and moved on. </p>
<p>During the Reagan administration, political appointees only had a tenure of around <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/009539979002200106?casa_token=sXEMQzwuzLEAAAAA:_RYU0Td5C9C8U1vv9r9X3FcoG25LeJkh5PGxJiz9tLwU7r54azGwSTXW1zjCDCP2y_252NZ-32g">1.7 years</a>. Such rapid turnover is fairly common under most US presidents. Political appointees appear to spend <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/976068?casa_token=aHIIj21WepUAAAAA:2atB101mvEanhmDSbWNwy0rD2iyeuVF15v77mqm7RmmAgryidhAgDxZhNgqh3_hTscX7S-6E0vvNKOlBRG6Ih8_6Anq_6JvWAkn1QVzCn2VNoRpGXQ&seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents">more time learning the ropes than doing the job</a>.</p>
<p>Another side effect of rapid turnover is that key leadership roles can remain vacant for some time. One study of the US federal government found that politically appointed roles were empty about <a href="https://weblaw.usc.edu/assets/docs/contribute/oconnellforwebsite.pdf">one-quarter of the time</a>. This meant departments were often rendered ineffective as they waited for new leadership.</p>
<h2>Turkey farms</h2>
<p>Political appointees often struggle to achieve much because their beliefs and leadership style are often quite different to careerists in the civil service they have to work with. Rather than generating creative tension, these differences often lead to <a href="https://oxfordre.com/politics/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.001.0001/acrefore-9780190228637-e-1395">corrosive conflict</a> between political appointees and career civil servants. Such conflict reduces the effectiveness of the departments which they run.</p>
<p>There is also a significant danger that political appointees only pay attention to a selective set of signals. Because of the route through which they get their job, political appointees tend to focus on issues which their political masters care about.</p>
<p>One final damaging consequence of increasing the numbers of political appointees is that some parts of the civil service can become what US government insiders call “<a href="https://academic.oup.com/jpart/article-abstract/27/2/217/2649135">turkey farms</a>”. These are the government departments that house loyal supporters of a ruling party who aren’t much use.</p>
<p>These “turkeys” end up in the parts of government where they can do the least harm. However, as a department gets crowded with turkeys, it becomes increasingly ineffective and bungling. And since no government department is entirely without use, the turkeys can end up causing real damage. </p>
<p>This is what happened to the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/976446.pdf?casa_token=dWulA7CrJqcAAAAA:tTHF0R5dwR5lf5f9A5CQ7XQKh765vBiqgGmMSPmBVpQRQr1wAALMnBRjNazCyVaKXNzyssBC2BzXyMBVX-sQ-TXYEY-KUe7iCem8IMQvn4pjIoi-rw">Federal Emergency Management Agency</a>. For decades, the organisation was seen as a turkey farm with incompetent leadership. And, when faced with large-scale emergencies such as hurricanes, FEMA has often responded in a bungling way. The consequences were made all too plain during the hopeless response when <a href="https://psmag.com/news/close-the-turkey-farm-4039">Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005</a>.</p>
<p>However, this is not to say appointed advisers have no place at all in government. Giles Wilkes, a former special adviser in Whitehall, makes a <a href="https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/sites/default/files/publications/InsideOut%20SPAD%20The%20Unelected%20Lynchpin_0.pdf">compelling case</a> for using them to manage the day-to-day bargaining process involved in making a government. A survey of special advisers in the UK government also found that they spent the majority of their time acting as political “fixers”, some of their time designing policy and spending much <a href="http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/66025/1/__lse.ac.uk_storage_LIBRARY_Secondary_libfile_shared_repository_Content_Page,%20Edward_New%20life%20at%20the%20top_Page_New_life_at_the_top.pdf">less time on policy delivery</a>.</p>
<p>By acting as a liaison between politicians and the bureaucracy, appointed officials can – in the best cases – smooth the way in the implementation of new policies. But the evidence from the US seems to suggest that political appointees are often much less useful at getting things done in government in a way which sticks in the long term.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/129097/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andre Spicer does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In the US, some federal departments become known as ‘turkey farms’ – stuffed with loyal but ultimately useless political appointees.Andre Spicer, Professor of Organisational Behaviour, Cass Business School, City, University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1275502019-12-13T18:00:33Z2019-12-13T18:00:33ZIn impeachment spotlight, dueling views of professionalism appear<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306638/original/file-20191212-85428-1xqen6u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=47%2C466%2C5278%2C3010&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">To some, White House aide Jennifer Williams and Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman are impartial truth-tellers; to others, they are power-hungry bureaucrats.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/APTOPIX-Trump-Impeachment/14630731596b4e3cbc5696a80af70958/3/0">AP Photo/Andrew Harnik</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Impeachment hearings have thrust a handful of public servants into the spotlight, where competing ideas about government professionals – variously called the <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/kent-taylor-impeachment-ukraine/">establishment</a>, the “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/23/us/politics/trump-deep-state-impeachment.html">deep state</a>,” <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/07/opinion/sunday/twilight-of-the-technocrats.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage">technocrats</a>, <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/the-report/articles/2019-10-25/bureaucrats-prove-key-to-the-impeachment-case-against-trump">bureaucrats</a>, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/11/trump-attack-vindman-yovanovitch-hill/602383/">experts</a> and <a href="https://www.cato.org/blog/donald-trump-criticizes-washingtons-policy-elite-cause">elites</a> – shape public reaction to their testimony.</p>
<p>A recent New York Times column by Frank Bruni <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/12/opinion/trump-impeachment-inquiry.html">captures the divide</a>. Bruni salutes professionalism as “a reality-based enterprise” with “credentials, benchmarks, all sorts of yardsticks by which a person can be judged.” </p>
<p>But a <a href="https://nyti.ms/2KiffCe#permid=103636261">commenter on the column going by the name of David</a> wants “much less of … the arrogance of those ‘true professionals’ presuming that they know better what is good or bad for the country than a democratically elected president and American people who elected him.”</p>
<p>Bruni’s professionals – the sort recently honored by Time magazine as “<a href="https://time.com/guardians-of-the-year-2019-public-servants/">Guardians of the Year</a>” – are a thin, principled line restraining the president’s worst instincts. Commenter David’s are out-of-touch elites scorning his <a href="https://time.com/4608555/hillary-clinton-popular-vote-final/">particular view of the popular will</a>.</p>
<p>This conflict is not new. As <a href="https://www.rit.edu/directory/mjbgsm-michael-brown">a historian writing about the role of the intellectual in American politics</a> for a forthcoming book, I see it often. </p>
<p>For at least a century, professionalism and the unflattering term “technocrats” have suggested people who, setting aside self-interest, take an objective, expert approach to public affairs. </p>
<p>Thinkers across the political spectrum have questioned this connection, however, seeing in professionalism a bastion of authority rather than a badge of competence. To them, the virtues underlying professionals’ status – rationality, responsibility, detachment – mask their play for power.</p>
<p>How the officials now in the spotlight are perceived – as professionals bound by facts, standards and duty or as elites who invoke them while pursuing their own agenda – may determine whether impeachment proceedings elicit public support or opposition.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306646/original/file-20191212-85391-15dtuud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306646/original/file-20191212-85391-15dtuud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306646/original/file-20191212-85391-15dtuud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306646/original/file-20191212-85391-15dtuud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306646/original/file-20191212-85391-15dtuud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306646/original/file-20191212-85391-15dtuud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306646/original/file-20191212-85391-15dtuud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306646/original/file-20191212-85391-15dtuud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In this 1884 newspaper illustration, armed guards escort workers through a strike demonstration. It was a chaotic time that led to calls for impartial experts to work on behalf of all citizens.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pinkerton_escorts_hocking_valley_leslies.jpg">Library of Congress/Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A path to progress</h2>
<p>By the late 19th century, American political life looked chaotic and corrupt to a growing movement of reformers. </p>
<p>Greedy political <a href="https://history.house.gov/Historical-Highlights/1851-1900/The-prison-escape-of-former-Representative-William-%E2%80%9CBoss%E2%80%9D-Tweed-of-New-York/">bosses</a> presided over cities, and labor disputes involved the naked use of force, with Pinkerton private security guards and state militias in <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/carnegie-strike-homestead-mill/">open battle</a> against striking workers. Amid the melee, many Americans <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/search-for-order-1877-1920/oclc/490459">searched for order</a>.</p>
<p>The possibility that objective, fact-based analysts could do the public’s work, with only the public interest in mind, was an appealing prospect. Self-dealing city bosses could be replaced by well-trained city managers. Public administration might control chaos and corruption. Professionalism could bring progress.</p>
<h2>A route to power</h2>
<p>Critics, however, glimpsed a narrower agenda. Historian Christopher Lasch, for instance, wrote that budding professionals had “<a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/new-radicalism-in-america-1889-1963-the-intellectual-as-a-social-type/oclc/256273">no resources, as a class, except argument and exposition</a>.” Lacking the concentrated wealth of the upper class and the numerical strength of the working class, members of the educated middle class were, Lasch argued, underdogs in a brute-force political world. Their best advantage lay in a society governed by reasoned argument rather than raw power. The quest for competent, impartial administration represented middle-class professionals’ vision of progress and their path to influence.</p>
<p>Instead of rising above class struggle, conservative commentator Irving Kristol claimed, professionals joined it.</p>
<p>“<a href="https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/about-equality/">The professional classes … are engaged in a class struggle</a> with the business community for status and power,” Kristol warned in 1972. Thinking they could “<a href="https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/about-equality/">do a better job of running our society</a>,” professionals sought the levers of government to do so. Kristol had in mind the domestic regulatory apparatus that the Trump administration <a href="https://time.com/4700311/donald-trump-white-house-counsel-steve-bannon/">wants to undo</a>.</p>
<p>Anarchist-socialist intellectual Noam Chomsky emphasized professionals’ role in global domination rather than stateside business. Borrowing a term for imperial Chinese officials, Chomsky called policy professionals “<a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/american-power-and-the-new-mandarins/oclc/783551719?referer=di&ht=edition">new mandarins</a>.” To him, they were administrators and apologists for an American empire. Historian <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/bitter-heritage/oclc/814409961?referer=di&ht=edition">Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.</a>, who had served in the Kennedy administration, attributed the Vietnam War to a sequence of blunders; <a href="https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1969/01/02/the-menace-of-liberal-scholarship/">Chomsky</a> thought it “designed and executed by these new mandarins.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306647/original/file-20191212-85417-hxlyb4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306647/original/file-20191212-85417-hxlyb4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306647/original/file-20191212-85417-hxlyb4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306647/original/file-20191212-85417-hxlyb4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306647/original/file-20191212-85417-hxlyb4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306647/original/file-20191212-85417-hxlyb4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306647/original/file-20191212-85417-hxlyb4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306647/original/file-20191212-85417-hxlyb4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A career diplomat, Ambassador William Taylor has been criticized by the president and his supporters as a biased ‘Never Trumper.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/APTOPIX-Trump-Impeachment/a37230b2ce70408eb4d8977676078328/3/0">AP Photo/Andrew Harnik</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A higher code?</h2>
<p>Chomsky, Lasch and Kristol span the political spectrum, from anarchism to neoconservatism, yet all three were skeptical of professionalism. </p>
<p>Behind professionals’ values, they saw a strategy for advancing professionals’ power. But these skeptics were not cynics who thought all values were shams or self-interest the only interest. They believed that public figures could live by a higher code, for they encouraged intellectuals like themselves to do so.</p>
<p>“It is the responsibility of intellectuals to speak the truth and to expose lies,” <a href="https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1967/02/23/a-special-supplement-the-responsibility-of-intelle/">Chomsky declared</a>. Similarly, the Ukraine whistleblower wrote of “<a href="https://intelligence.house.gov/uploadedfiles/20190812_-_whistleblower_complaint_unclass.pdf">fulfilling my duty to report this information</a>,” exposing facts that others might prefer remain hidden. </p>
<p>The president’s defenders take a more cynical view: Officials who question his conduct do so from personal motives rather than public responsibility. The whistleblower, they claim, is <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/ukraine-whistleblower-had-political-bias-and-was-in-favor-of-trumps-rival-candidate-doj">politically biased</a>. Likewise, the president dubs Ambassador William Taylor, who testified before the House Intelligence Committee, a “<a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2019/10/23/trump-william-taylor-tweet-ukraine-055917">Never Trumper</a>.” </p>
<h2>Professionalism or citizenship?</h2>
<p>Calling these professionals “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/22/us/trump-impeachment-ukraine.html">radical unelected bureaucrats</a>,” the president’s allies aim to shift attention from his actions to the specter of an anti-democratic establishment. Indeed, both sides of the impeachment debate claim a duty to democracy: Convicting Trump ends his corrupt authoritarianism; vindicating him protects the people’s “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/in-speech-at-republican-national-convention-trump-to-paint-dire-picture-of-america/2016/07/21/418f9ae6-4fad-11e6-aa14-e0c1087f7583_story.html">voice</a>.” </p>
<p>When reason and public responsibility define professionalism, these virtues implicitly distinguish professionals from others. That distinction is uncomfortable for democracy. It suggests that professionals are not just a group apart but also one above. </p>
<p>In a culture of dueling stories about professionalism, the officials who testify at impeachment hearings may find that their evidence reaches its widest audience when presented in light not of virtues exclusive to professionals but decency common to citizens.</p>
<p>[ <em>Insight, in your inbox each day.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=insight">You can get it with The Conversation’s email newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/127550/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael J. Brown does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Public officials are now in the spotlight: Does the public view them as professionals, bound by duty, or as elites who invoke ideals while pursuing their own agendas?Michael J. Brown, Assistant Professor of History, Rochester Institute of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1250292019-11-11T14:09:56Z2019-11-11T14:09:56ZHow Ghanaian civil servants sought to resist political pressure<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/300093/original/file-20191104-88394-1tc89t2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Distribution of public goods like solar panels can be influenced by political elements</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Electricity is a hot political issue in Ghana. Ghanaians demand access to the electricity grid as a right of citizenship. And, when not connected, they have <a href="https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/Sherigu-residents-threaten-No-light-No-votes-469798">threatened</a> in the past to boycott national elections with slogans such as: “No light, no vote!” </p>
<p>In 2016, then President Mahama became known as “Mr Power Cut” because of widespread <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-18980639">power cuts</a> that plagued his term in office. He was heavily defeated in elections by Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo-Addo. The next Ghanaian election in 2020 is a rematch between the two.</p>
<p>Politicians are therefore under a lot of pressure to distribute reliable electric power, but concerns about corruption in the power sector persist. </p>
<p>In a new <a href="http://justinschon.com/resources/PG_pre-print.pdf">research paper</a> we examine a programme to distribute solar panels to meet the needs of people without electricity in Ghana. We wanted to find out whether political patronage played a role in decisions about who got the solar panels and who didn’t.</p>
<p>Our broader question was whether civil servants in a developing democracy can resist political capture in the distribution of public goods. </p>
<h2>Resisting the opportunity for corruption</h2>
<p>A great deal of research has been done on how political patronage works from the perspective of <a href="https://sites.google.com/site/simeonnichter/votesforsurvival">what drives politicians</a>. But service decisions are often made by bureaucrats. That is why we chose to conduct our research by tracking decisions taken by civil servants.</p>
<p>Interviews revealed that the goal of the solar panel programme was to provide electricity for educational, medical and community purposes in places where future grid extension was unlikely. The programme was funded by a European government donor and implemented by the Ghanaian Ministry of Energy. </p>
<p>The civil servants who carried out the programme knew that political corruption was common in Ghana. For example, <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5acc1ee17e3c3a103525fb2b/t/5acd1d3c88251ba3fcad2345/1523391805396/Briggs+%282012%29+Electrify+the+base.pdf">studies</a> had shown that vote buying was prevalent and that politicians sometimes used the provision of public goods – even the electricity grid – to gain votes. </p>
<p>We found that because of this, civil servants had taken extra precautions to avoid the programme being “captured” by politicians. For example, they relied on grid access data – rather than member of parliament recommendations – to identify communities that needed electricity. They also visited communities to confirm their need. </p>
<p>Our paper asked whether the programme was successful in getting solar panels to the neediest communities, rather than rewarding communities that usually voted for the political party in power. </p>
<p>We found that the considerable efforts to thwart corruption paid off for national-level civil servants. They were able to resist political capture. But only up to a point. Even their best efforts were thwarted when politics seeped into the process at a local level.</p>
<h2>Who got the solar panels?</h2>
<p>We analysed whether solar panels were more likely to go to isolated communities with limited road infrastructure or to places with political ties to the government. Since grid expansion usually follows road infrastructure, communities with few roads are unlikely to be connected to the grid in the medium term. These communities therefore have a greater need for alternative sources of electricity, like solar panels. </p>
<p>We tracked the distribution of solar panels using statistical analysis of data on solar panel locations. We also interviewed people who made decisions or were affected by the programme. </p>
<p>The programme partially worked: panels were indeed distributed to isolated communities and those in need of electricity, rather than to incumbent strongholds. </p>
<p>But we also found that panels went to areas where voter turnout had been inconsistent over time – in other words where it was likely that voter turnout could be swayed. </p>
<p>This pattern was evident across the country, but was particularly marked in the area around Lake Volta. Analysis of interview responses and historical documents showed that this variation reflected the logistics of space and the historical politics of place. </p>
<p>This could mean that distribution was also influenced by the desire to mobilise people who sometimes, but do not always, vote, by bringing them electricity access.</p>
<h2>Politics at local level</h2>
<p>Bureaucratic efforts to avoid political influence did succeed in some ways. The most obvious ways for political capture to influence distribution would be to steer more solar panels to communities with the highest support for the incumbent political party or highest voter turnout. This, however, did not happen. </p>
<p>We found, though, that politics seeped into the decision-making process at a local level. </p>
<p>Because it was hard for bureaucrats in the capital to obtain enough data about where to distribute the solar panels, they consulted local actors in communities to learn more about local need. This may have opened up the process to people who had more explicit political agendas than the national bureaucrats. Panels were subtly steered to places that were both needed and politically useful. </p>
<p>African governments have long dealt with the unfortunate stereotype that they distribute goods solely based on clientelism, nepotism, or corruption. Our study of Ghana’s work to distribute solar panels adds to the growing body of evidence that African governments do respond to need. They can resist political influence. They just may not be able to avoid it completely.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/125029/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lauren M. MacLean received funding as a Carnegie Fellow 2017-19 from the Carnegie Corporation. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Elizabeth Baldwin, Jennifer N. Brass, and Justin Scott Schon do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Contrary to stereotypes of nepotism and corruption, African governments such as Ghana’s work hard to respond to need over politics. They can mostly resist politics, but not entirely.Justin Scott Schon, Post Doctoral Researcher, University of FloridaElizabeth Baldwin, Assistant Professor, School of Government and Public Policy, University of Arizona, University of ArizonaJennifer N. Brass, Associate professor, O'Neill School of Public & Environmental Affairs, Indiana UniversityLauren M. MacLean, Arthur F. Bentley Chair and Professor of Political ScienceLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1195222019-07-12T12:05:20Z2019-07-12T12:05:20ZThe Trump administration wants to dismantle the agency overseeing 2 million federal workers – and weaken safeguards against partisanship<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283401/original/file-20190709-44457-1ck38ni.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In 1978, President Jimmy Carter spoke at a Northern Virginia high school about civil service changes underway.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Watchf-AP-A-VA-USA-APHS358646-President-Jimmy-Carter/bac5d224d3ee49648d299d24ce5eda59/1/0">AP Photo/Jeff Taylor</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The U.S. government has put <a href="https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=false&doc=48">expertise and competence</a> ahead of political considerations when it hires people for more than 135 years. </p>
<p>As a result of changes made during President Chester Arthur’s administration, the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jul/21/donald-trump-administration-us-government-jobs-unfilled">vast majority of government jobs</a> can only be <a href="https://courses.lumenlearning.com/amgovernment/chapter/toward-a-merit-based-civil-service/">awarded on the basis of merit</a>. Prospective employees historically had to complete a <a href="https://www.federaljobs.net/exams.htm">competitive exam</a> and today must complete <a href="https://www.dol.gov/general/jobs/understanding-the-federal-hiring-process">detailed applications</a>, undergo interviews and get their background checked. Employees also cannot be fired or demoted for political reasons. </p>
<p>These rules apply to all but about 4,000 <a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/presidential-appointments-no-senate-required-3322124">politically appointed</a> employees among the <a href="https://www.governing.com/gov-data/federal-employees-workforce-numbers-by-state.html">2 million people</a> who work for the federal government, not counting postal service workers. Those only require presidential support and, for around 1,200 of these jobs, <a href="https://www.everycrsreport.com/reports/RL30959.html">Senate confirmation</a>.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283397/original/file-20190709-44432-igiuwj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283397/original/file-20190709-44432-igiuwj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283397/original/file-20190709-44432-igiuwj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=747&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283397/original/file-20190709-44432-igiuwj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=747&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283397/original/file-20190709-44432-igiuwj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=747&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283397/original/file-20190709-44432-igiuwj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=939&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283397/original/file-20190709-44432-igiuwj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=939&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283397/original/file-20190709-44432-igiuwj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=939&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Safeguards began making the federal workforce more neutral when Chester Arthur was in the White House.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://cdn.loc.gov/service/pnp/cph/3a50000/3a53000/3a53200/3a53294v.jpg">Charles Milton Bell</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Trump administration is taking several steps that could remove safeguards against partisanship and nepotism in the federal workforce. Among other things, it is pushing to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/if-trump-has-his-way-this-major-federal-agency-is-on-the-way-out/2019/04/09/935e2dfe-54c0-11e9-9136-f8e636f1f6df_story.html">dissolve the Office of Personnel Management</a>, which oversees the administration of the civil service system. <a href="https://www.rollcall.com/news/whitehouse/opm-trump-agency-not-easy">Democrats</a> are objecting to this move.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://scholarworks.boisestate.edu/do/search/?q=author%3A(%20Matthew%20May%20)&start=0&start_date=01%2F01%2F2016&context=678180&sort=score&facet=">public administration researcher</a>, I look at how political partisanship influences the relationship between government employees and elected officials. </p>
<p>To understand why scholars like me and other experts are concerned that dismantling OPM could harm the civil service system by making it more partisan, it is helpful to understand why the U.S. moved toward a merit-based system in the first place. </p>
<h2>To the victor goes the spoils</h2>
<p>For about a century following independence from Britain, the U.S. federal workforce operated under a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6210.2008.01941.x">patronage system</a>. Also called <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/spoils-system">the spoils system</a>, it gave elected politicians complete control over the federal workforce, allowing them to dole out government jobs to their most ardent supporters and remove partisan foes.</p>
<p>The political party in power profited directly from the spoils system because a portion of every appointee’s paycheck would be earmarked as a mandatory campaign contribution. By the late 1870s, these mandatory contributions <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1111/1468-2508.t01-1-00003">accounted for three-quarters</a> of all campaign contributions.</p>
<p>This emphasis on political loyalty meant that numerous federal employees were either unqualified, unethical or both. Federal government employees were implicated in many bribery scandals, involving everything from regulating <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/19th-century/credit-mobilier">railroads</a> to overseeing the <a href="https://www.history.com/news/the-whiskey-ring-and-americas-first-special-prosecutor">whiskey</a> business to awarding contracts for <a href="https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/belknap-scandal">trading posts</a> at military forts.</p>
<p>Even so, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2508.t01-1-00003">members of both major political parties</a> tried to reform the spoils system but were largely unsuccessful until a tragedy brought about change.</p>
<h2>An assassination spurs reform</h2>
<p>Charles J. Guiteau, a man who by many accounts was suffering from mental illness, shot <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/garfield-assassination-altered-american-history-woefully-forgotten-today-180968319/">President James Garfield</a> on July 2, 1881. Garfield soon died from infections related to the gunshot wound. </p>
<p>Guiteau was furious over being denied a federal job despite his perception that he had personally helped Garfield win. The assassination led to a public outcry and widespread demands for personnel reforms.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283398/original/file-20190709-44479-eqxao3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283398/original/file-20190709-44479-eqxao3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283398/original/file-20190709-44479-eqxao3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=871&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283398/original/file-20190709-44479-eqxao3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=871&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283398/original/file-20190709-44479-eqxao3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=871&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283398/original/file-20190709-44479-eqxao3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1095&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283398/original/file-20190709-44479-eqxao3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1095&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283398/original/file-20190709-44479-eqxao3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1095&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">James Garfield’s assassin said he was angry about not getting a federal job he believed he was due.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2017893296/">Brady-Handy photograph collection, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A bipartisan legislative majority passed the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Pendleton-Civil-Service-Act">Pendleton Act</a> in 1883. The law established open competitive exams for most government positions. The goal was to ensure that civil servants were capable of doing their jobs, while letting presidents retain the ability to appoint the most senior positions. That same system remains largely in place today, administered by <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/Civil_Service_Reform_Act">three agencies since</a> 1978.</p>
<h2>Not down with OPM</h2>
<p>One of those three agencies is the <a href="https://www.opm.gov/about-us/our-mission-role-history/">Office of Personnel Management</a>, which the Trump administration wants to dismantle and then move its civil service functions elsewhere. Most of the agency’s responsibilities would land within the <a href="https://www.gsa.gov/about-us/background-and-history">General Services Administration</a>, which currently oversees the government’s real estate and procurement. </p>
<p>House Democrats and <a href="https://federalnewsnetwork.com/pay/2019/06/house-appropriators-advance-2020-federal-pay-raise-reject-opm-gsa-merger/">federal labor leaders</a> want <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/10/politics/office-of-personnel-management-trump-administration/index.html">to block the move</a>. They say it is unwarranted and could <a href="https://www.rollcall.com/news/whitehouse/opm-trump-agency-not-easy">inject partisanship</a> into the federal hiring process – meaning that members of the party in the White House would get the bulk of all new civil service jobs.</p>
<p>OPM is an <a href="https://www.usa.gov/independent-agencies">independent federal agency</a> overseen by Congress. Heads of independent agencies are appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate, but unlike Cabinet members, they <a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/independent-executive-agencies-of-us-government-4119935">cannot be fired without cause</a>. This makes them more autonomous than other executive branch agencies and partially insulates them from presidential directives.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/">Office of Management and Budget</a>, which would take over the administration of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/06/29/trump-appointee-says-personnel-staff-likely-wont-be-furloughed-doesnt-rule-it-out/?utm_term=.1772cf0c83cd">federal workforce policy</a> if OPM no longer exists, is an executive branch agency under the president’s direct control. Under this arrangement, Trump could potentially exert more influence over those policies, which he has <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2018/05/25/trump-federal-employees-unions-civil-servants-609167">already shown a willingness</a> to do.</p>
<p>In May of 2018, President Trump issued <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-executive-order-federal-worker-firing-2018-5">three executive orders</a> designed to make it easier to fire federal employees and limit the power of federal labor unions. A federal judge <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-workers/us-judge-rejects-trump-directives-easing-ability-to-fire-federal-workers-idUSKCN1LA0LB">blocked the orders</a> a few months later, but some agencies are still trying to <a href="https://www.govexec.com/workforce/2019/06/epa-unilaterally-imposes-new-union-contract-slashing-telework-easing-firing/158023/">independently implement</a> the changes.</p>
<h2>More grievances</h2>
<p>The three-seat <a href="https://www.mspb.gov/About/about.htm">U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board</a> is another agency that grew out of the Civil Service Commission. It is charged with adjudicating employee grievances within the civil service system and has <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/this-grievance-board-for-federal-workers-has-one-person-left--and-hes-about-to-leave/2019/02/12/c573e446-296e-11e9-b011-d8500644dc98_story.html?utm_term=.83173322e702">lacked a quorum since a few weeks before Trump took office</a> in January 2017. It has a backlog of <a href="https://www.fedweek.com/fedweek/wait-to-fill-mspb-board-could-end-soon/">more than 2,100 cases waiting</a> to be heard. </p>
<p>The term of its <a href="https://www.apnews.com/edd1f5eaca37478abb79ed5f9eedb0b9">last remaining member</a>, <a href="https://www.fedsmith.com/2019/03/07/politics-importance-civil-service/">Mark Robbins</a>, expired in March 2019. All board positions have been vacant since then, <a href="https://www.govexec.com/pay-benefits/2019/06/final-merit-board-nominee-promises-protect-civil-service-agency-looks-regain-teeth/157722/">pending Senate approval</a> of Trump’s three nominees.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283396/original/file-20190709-44432-xw9nlg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283396/original/file-20190709-44432-xw9nlg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283396/original/file-20190709-44432-xw9nlg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283396/original/file-20190709-44432-xw9nlg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283396/original/file-20190709-44432-xw9nlg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283396/original/file-20190709-44432-xw9nlg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283396/original/file-20190709-44432-xw9nlg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283396/original/file-20190709-44432-xw9nlg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">When he was the last remaining member of the Merit Systems Protection Board, Mark Robbins was unable to move forward with any of the panel’s business.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Lone-Bureaucrat/1118c80de2eb4b4b9e886c642fee90ef/5/0">AP Photo/Juliet Linderman</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The <a href="https://www.flra.gov/">Federal Labor Relations Authority</a>, the third agency that grew out of the Civil Service Commission, administers labor-management relations for non-postal service federal employees. In June 2019, a union representing more than 8,000 Environmental Protection Agency employees <a href="https://federalnewsnetwork.com/workforce-rightsgovernance/2019/06/epa-bargaining-proposal-rolls-back-telework-official-time/">filed a grievance</a> with the authority over the Trump administration’s plans to limit telework to one day a week and make it easier to fire EPA staff. The workplace changes are similar to those included in executive orders Trump had signed but which <a href="https://www.govexec.com/workforce/2019/06/epa-unilaterally-imposes-new-union-contract-slashing-telework-easing-firing/158023/">got tied up in court</a>.</p>
<p>In addition to dismantling OPM, the Trump administration <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2019/06/13/usda-kansas-city-area-1529072">plans to relocate</a> a total of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/07/01/these-usda-employees-face-stark-choice-move-kansas-city-or-be-fired/?utm_term=.7a63bc06f81d">about 550 jobs</a> at two Washington, D.C.-based U.S. <a href="https://www.usda.gov/media/press-releases/2019/06/13/secretary-perdue-announces-kansas-city-region-location-ers-and-nifa">Department of Agriculture research agencies to Kansas City</a>.</p>
<p>Even before the USDA announced the new workplace site in June 2019, giving these researchers one month to decide whether to move to Kansas City, many had resigned. Some staff members have <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2019/05/07/agriculture-economists-leave-trump-1307146">argued that the reorganization is a form of retaliation</a> against the researchers for their findings that are sometimes at odds with Trump administration policies on issues, such as the degree to which <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/05/18/724433714/critics-say-usda-plan-to-move-federal-agencies-could-hurt-research-vital-for-far">Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program</a> benefits – also known as food stamps – help millions of Americans.</p>
<p>The official rationale for the move is that it will <a href="https://www.usda.gov/sites/default/files/documents/062819-CBA.pdf">cut costs</a>.</p>
<p>[ <em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/119522/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew May does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It’s dismantling the Office of Personnel Management and relocating hundreds of USDA research jobs on short notice.Matthew May, Senior Research Associate, Boise State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1181292019-06-04T13:21:40Z2019-06-04T13:21:40ZSouth Africa’s “new dawn” should be built on evidence-based policy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/277575/original/file-20190603-69059-1yjh9fh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">President Cyril Ramaphosa must prioritise evidence-based policy making.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">GovernmentZA/Flickr</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>South African President Cyril Ramaphosa was elected on the promise of bringing a “<a href="https://www.gov.za/speeches/president-cyril-ramaphosa-2018-state-nation-address-16-feb-2018-0000">new dawn</a>” to the country. There are clear signs that he is trying to make this happen. He’s reconfigured his <a href="https://www.gov.za/speeches/president-cyril-ramaphosa-cabinet-announcement-29-may-2019-0000">cabinet</a>. He’s also made several senior public sector <a href="https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/national/2019-03-27-breaking-news-edward-kieswetter-appointed-new-sars-commissioner/">appointments</a>. These are designed to instil trust in key state institutions.</p>
<p>And, crucially, he has <a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africa-has-a-new-presidential-advisory-unit-will-it-improve-policy-117128">reintroduced</a> a high-level policy coordination unit, the Policy Analysis and Researcher Services, within his office. </p>
<p>This is an encouraging move. It suggests that, despite a flurry of radical changes in the executive, a core strength of previous administrations will not be lost: South Africa’s evidence-based approach to policy development and implementation is set to continue.</p>
<p>Evidence-based policy making has been a feature in South Africa for over 20 years. This approach is valuable for several reasons. First, it allows policy makers to understand which policies and programmes work in achieving their objectives. It also highlights which policies don’t and should be reviewed or stopped. </p>
<p>Second, the evidence-based approach to policy making has value beyond policies in individual sectors. It can also decrease wasteful expenditure by focusing on the most cost-effective programmes. For example, the UK’s <a href="https://www.nice.org.uk/">National Institute for Health and Care Excellence</a> has for 20 years appraised and guided the country’s spending on health interventions and technologies. </p>
<p>Finally, it creates enhanced accountability and transparency in the state’s decision-making processes. That’s because systems used in this approach allow policy makers to <a href="https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/issue-briefs/2017/04/how-policymakers-prioritize-evidence-based-programs-through-law">openly declare</a> what types of information and data they used in reaching particular decisions.</p>
<p>Ramaphosa’s “new dawn” will require a rigorous evidence-base of what works to guide high-level policy planning and design.</p>
<h2>Policy examples</h2>
<p>There are several examples of successful evidence-based policy interventions in South Africa. Arguably, the most high profile example relates to the country’s fight against HIV/AIDS. A civil society group, the Treatment Action Campaign, <a href="https://tac.org.za/category/about/">advocated</a> for a more evidence-based approach to the management and care of HIV/AIDS. The subsequent policy change is estimated to have prevented <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1002469">1.72 million deaths</a> between 2000 and 2014.</p>
<p>South Africa’s groundbreaking social grants system is another evidence-based policy success story. Its design and implementation have been rigorously evaluated in multiple studies. These have found significant positive effects on <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09765239.2017.1336304">poverty reduction</a> and <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-social-policy/article/child-support-grants-in-south-africa-a-pathway-to-womens-empowerment-and-child-wellbeing/9ED6B4F0D81D8F61BB2C29CD27C42F58">women’s empowerment</a>, among other outcomes.</p>
<p>While policy design has been solid, implementation has not always been successful. This is because while policy design largely happens at the national government level, implementation tends to be handled at a provincial or municipal level. These tiers must be strengthened to ensure better implementation.</p>
<h2>Successes so far</h2>
<p>Despite shortcomings in implementation, South Africa is a continental leader in evidence-based policy making. Its approach to evaluating and measuring policies’ effects is implemented across government departments through the <a href="https://www.dpme.gov.za/Pages/default.aspx">National Evaluation System</a>. The system has achieved international acclaim. Several <a href="https://www.twendembele.org/">other African countries</a> have used it as an inspiration from which to design similar systems. </p>
<p>By 2018, South Africa’s system had assessed <a href="https://evaluations.dpme.gov.za/images/gallery/NEP%202018-19_2020%20-2021.pdf">R110 billion of government expenditure</a>. By doing this, it was able to indicate the effectiveness of various policies and programmes. This is hugely important in a climate of <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-30/south-africa-s-budget-deficit-seen-wider-than-treasury-forecasts">limited funds</a>.</p>
<p>The Department of Environmental Affairs is a useful example of transparency and openness in policy making. It develops dedicated <a href="https://www.environment.gov.za/mediarelease/deahosts3rdbiodiversityresearchandevidenceindaba">research and evidence strategies</a>. These are used to tell stakeholders what types of information the department needs to make key policy decisions. </p>
<p>The Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, meanwhile, is systematically collecting data from citizens themselves regarding policy implementation and service delivery. This is done through its <a href="https://www.dpme.gov.za/keyfocusareas/cbmSite/Pages/default.aspx">citizen-based monitoring programme</a>.</p>
<p>Another area of evidence-based policy making where South Africa has performed well relates to training. It is important that public servants be empowered to draw on relevant information and evidence without having to outsource this critical input for policy development. The Department of Public Service and Administration runs training programmes for all public servants. This is complemented by the University of Cape Town, which offers <a href="http://www.mandelaschool.uct.ac.za/gsdpp/courses/evidence_based_policy_making_implementation">executive training</a> on the topic for senior policy makers. </p>
<p>In addition, the Department of Science and Technology (which has now been merged with the Department of Higher Education and Training) supports <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/event/workshop/eipm-water-energy-food-health">a range</a> of evidence-based policy making <a href="http://sasdghub.org/about/">initiatives</a>.</p>
<p>All of this, along with a few other initiatives, has meant that South African civil servants are increasingly able to develop and maintain rigorous evidence-bases to inform their policy decisions. </p>
<h2>Build and adapt</h2>
<p>In the coming months, President Ramaphosa’s administration must maintain what has worked so far in evidence-based policy making. The focus should not shift to selected expert opinions and external consultant reports. After all, the country boasts <a href="https://www.dpme.gov.za/keyfocusareas/Socio%20Economic%20Impact%20Assessment%20System/Pages/default.aspx">many</a> robust, <a href="https://www.dpme.gov.za/news/Pages/DPME-to-launch-Evidence-Mapping-tool.aspx">proven systems</a> within the civil service <a href="https://www.dpme.gov.za/publications/20%20Years%20Review/Pages/default.aspx">already</a>.</p>
<p>The new administration can draw on and expand these existing efforts to build a civil service that is skilled at policy making in complex and rapidly changing local, national, and regional contexts. This is key to building a <a href="https://www.gov.za/speeches/president-cyril-ramaphosa-cabinet-announcement-29-may-2019-0000">modern developmental state</a> that’s capable of implementing the National Development Plan, a blueprint for the next decade.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/118129/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Laurenz Langer works for the Africa Centre for Evidence (ACE), University of Johannesburg. ACE has received funding from South African government departments to support evidence synthesis and evidence-based policy-making in a number of policy areas. ACE also has received a number of external research grants from international donors such as the Hewlett Foundation and overseas research councils. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Promise Nduku works for the Africa Centre for Evidence (ACE), University of Johannesburg. ACE has received funding from South African government departments to support evidence synthesis and evidence-based policy-making in a number of policy areas. ACE also has received a number of external research grants from international donors such as the Hewlett Foundation and overseas research councils.</span></em></p>Ramaphosa’s “new dawn” will require a rigorous evidence-base of what works to guide high-level policy planning and design.Laurenz Langer, Senior Researcher, University of JohannesburgPromise Nduku, Researcher, University of JohannesburgLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/930312018-03-27T10:44:45Z2018-03-27T10:44:45ZWhat the staff does matters more than what’s in an organization’s mission statement<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/211058/original/file-20180319-31605-1vg3qc5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The late Sen. Ted Kennedy, reading from "A Nation of Immigrants," a book by his brother, President John F. Kennedy</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Associated-Press-Domestic-News-Dist-of-Columbia-United-States-IMMIGRATION/aaaa17aa0fe8da11af9f0014c2589dfb/10/0">AP Photo/Dennis Cook</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/mission-statement.html">Mission statements</a>, not normally in the news, are getting more attention than usual. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/2/22/17041862/uscis-removes-nation-of-immigrants-from-mission-statement">U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services</a>, the Department of <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/hud-mission-statement_us_5a9f5db0e4b002df2c5ec617">Housing and Urban Development</a>, the <a href="https://diplomacy.state.gov/discoverdiplomacy/diplomacy101/issues/170606.htm">State</a> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20161227021650/http:/www.state.gov/s/d/rm/index.htm">Department</a> and other federal agencies are changing the way they express their core purpose and focus. In many cases, the Trump administration is <a href="https://www.npr.org/2018/02/23/588374709/u-s-citizenship-and-immigration-services-omit-nation-of-immigrants-from-mission-">alarming observers</a> by deleting key phrases that signal diversity and inclusion.</p>
<p>My <a href="http://rdcu.be/J3tC">research on nonprofit mission statements</a>, published in the Nonprofit Management & Leadership academic journal, however, suggests that there might be less to worry about than it appears. I have found that how people in a given organization personally understand its mission matters more than any formal statements summing it up.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LJhG3HZ7b4o?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Author Dan Heath, a Duke University professor, suggests a few ways to write strong mission statements.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Tales of tinkering</h2>
<p>In the summer of 2017, the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2018/03/16/trumps-edits-to-democracy-annotated/">State Department</a> replaced its mission statement with a new one. The old phrasing referenced democracy but the new one didn’t.</p>
<p>In February, the <a href="https://theintercept.com/2018/02/22/u-s-citizenship-and-immigration-services-will-remove-nation-of-immigrants-from-mission-statement/">immigration agency altered</a> its long-running mission statement to omit references to the U.S. being “a nation of immigrants.” </p>
<p>Around the same time, some Veterans Administration <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2018/02/14/va-employees-wanted-a-gender-neutral-mission-statement-the-agency-refused/?utm_term=.2ba02b147405">employees temporarily altered</a> its motto without permission, replacing the line “to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow, and his orphan” with “to care for those ‘who shall have borne the battle’ and for their families, caregivers, and survivors.” Their superiors overrode the change, which symbolically supported female veterans through gender-neutral language. </p>
<p>Then <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/hud-mission-statement_us_5a9f5db0e4b002df2c5ec617">HUD Secretary Ben Carson said he wanted to change</a> the agency’s <a href="https://www.hud.gov/about/mission">mission statement</a>, removing its call to “build inclusive and sustainable communities free from discrimination.” </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/211060/original/file-20180319-31614-zhs8pr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/211060/original/file-20180319-31614-zhs8pr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/211060/original/file-20180319-31614-zhs8pr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211060/original/file-20180319-31614-zhs8pr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211060/original/file-20180319-31614-zhs8pr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211060/original/file-20180319-31614-zhs8pr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211060/original/file-20180319-31614-zhs8pr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211060/original/file-20180319-31614-zhs8pr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson addressing HUD employees in March 2017.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Carson-HUD/4828f893c953428a854321bedf11da48/5/0">AP Photo/Susan Walsh</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What does the staff say?</h2>
<p>Disagreements among managers, board members and staff regarding a group’s mission, values and other key ideas are <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09614520050116578">relatively common</a> and <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0899764010370869">even natural</a> at all kinds of agencies and groups. Yet a <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0899764014523335">study of nonprofits</a> by scholars at three different universities found that nonprofits rarely change their formal mission statements. These researchers also found that the shifts that do occur tend to be driven most often by collaboration with their peers.</p>
<p>As I began my research, I expected changes in formal mission statements to be the most important signals of what an organization seeks to accomplish. But after interviewing the leaders and lower-ranking employees at a variety of nonprofits engaged in activities such as adult literacy, clean water and sanitation, I discovered that their own views mattered more. </p>
<p>Many of the same people cannot recall the exact language of their organization’s official mission statement, yet they have a clear and personal understanding of their nonprofit’s mission. These takes can be different within a single organization, as you might expect. People, after all, join nonprofits with different values and motivations. Their work requires them to focus on different activities, which absorb their attention and set distinct priorities. </p>
<p>As I compared the statements by real people to the words found in official documents like annual reports and on websites, including formal mission statements, I made another observation. Mission statements broadly establish an organization’s purpose, but they do not serve as the best guide for action. Instead, what truly guides an organization is the consensus among the people in it.</p>
<p>I also noticed two important trends. First, this somewhat informal consensus changes more often than formal mission statements. Second, the consensus may not match the personal views of senior leaders. Often, what the staff perceives is actually closer to the true mission within the organization than the formal written statement or the views of board members.</p>
<p>As for the Trump administration, it may find that changing the formal mission statements that guide agencies like HUD and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will not achieve its desired political goals.</p>
<p>If civil servants continue to personally believe that they reside in “a nation of immigrants,” taking that expression out of their agency’s mission statement won’t have much of an impact. And HUD’s staff, likewise, may continue to make rooting out housing discrimination a high priority even if that’s no longer baked into that agency’s mission statement.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/93031/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Berlan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Changes to the official mandates guiding nonprofits and government agencies might be less significant than they appear.David Berlan, Assistant Professor of Public Administration, Askew School of Public Administration and Policy, Florida State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/716102017-02-10T04:15:23Z2017-02-10T04:15:23ZWhy Trump needs the civil servants he wants to fire: Lessons from abroad<p>Like most Republicans, President Donald Trump has made it clear he intends to “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/02/opinion/donald-trump-bureaucracy-apprentice.html?_r=0">fix</a>” the federal government by “draining the swamp.” Traditionally, the GOP has aimed to <a href="http://www.rollcall.com/news/policy/gop-readies-cuts-federal-workforce-trump">cut the size</a> of the federal government. The president’s freeze on <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/trump-issues-executive-orders-freezing-federal-hiring-targeting-trade-n710886">hiring federal employees</a> is a first step in that direction. And he might go a step more.</p>
<p>The administration is showing signs that it views the bureaucracy as primarily implementers, not creators, of policy.</p>
<p>Evidence of this shift in approach can be seen in White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer’s response to a <a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/politics/2017/01/31/state-department-dissent-letter-draws-signatures/bAoEtqeqEwyfUQoC2uzDgL/story.html">letter of dissent</a> signed by nearly 1,000 State Department employees against Trump’s travel ban to the U.S. from seven Muslim majority countries. He <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2017/01/30/spicer-diplomats-opposed-to-immigration-ban-should-either-get-with-the-program-or-they-can-go/?utm_term=.9915a87def0b">said</a> they should “either get with the program or they can go.”</p>
<p>Trump abruptly ended Sally Yates’ term as attorney general for <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/01/30/acting-us-attorney-general-tells-doj-lawyers-not-to-defend-trumps-travel-ban.html">refusing</a> to defend the order.</p>
<p>This demand for obedience is most often seen in competitive authoritarian regimes, which I <a href="https://adnankrasool.files.wordpress.com/2017/02/rasoolfairbanks-working-paper-version-2.pdf">study</a>. Such regimes often look like democracies, but don’t actually function like them. Think Turkey and Malaysia, for example.</p>
<p>Such a confrontation between leaders and civil servants leaves the system gridlocked and in chaos. It’s worth understanding the vital role bureaucracies play in the smooth functioning of a government by looking at examples from other countries.</p>
<h2>Lessons from Japan and Turkey</h2>
<p>After the second World War, Japan made efforts to rebuild its economy and revamp its pre-war institutions. Leaders sought to better serve a new democratic country with significantly limited global influence. Civil service reform was a crucial part of this rebuilding process. As a result of these reforms, starting in the 1960s, Japan was effectively <a href="http://www.tokyofoundation.org/en/articles/2008/the-bureaucratic-role-and-party-governance-symposium-report-3">governed</a> by a bureaucracy, while the Liberal Democratic Party ruled.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/156313/original/image-20170210-8631-9oubjg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/156313/original/image-20170210-8631-9oubjg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/156313/original/image-20170210-8631-9oubjg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/156313/original/image-20170210-8631-9oubjg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/156313/original/image-20170210-8631-9oubjg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/156313/original/image-20170210-8631-9oubjg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/156313/original/image-20170210-8631-9oubjg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Japanese Prime Minister Eisaku Sato’s third Cabinet is inaugurated in Tokyo on Jan. 14, 1970.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/T. Sakakibara/H. Huet</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Prime Minister Eisaku Sato, who was in power most of the ‘60’s and early '70’s, empowered bureaucrats at government departments. For example, under his leadership, the responsibilities of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry were expanded to include building an export-oriented economy that created jobs. This work built the foundations for the modern Japanese economy. </p>
<p>Politicians were able to take credit for economic programs that worked, and distance themselves from those that were unpopular, but necessary. The LDP <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/how-did-ldp-hold-so-long-79091">deflected criticism</a> of unpopular budget cuts, and the restructuring of basic public services implemented by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry. </p>
<p>This division of responsibility allowed nonelected officials to conduct the day-to-day tasks of governing and delivering public services. Meanwhile, party leaders focused on the big-ticket populist items, such as resisting China’s acceptance into the U.N., and committing to a nonnuclear Japan. This allowed the regime to focus on promises that helped win reelection. Civil servants had the autonomy to run their departments in the most efficient way without political blow-back. </p>
<p>The case of Turkey is more complex. It also went through a similar period during the 1980s in which its government – both in authoritarian and democratic forms – relied on the bureaucracy to lead industrialization and development <a href="https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2000/09/turk-s27.html">efforts</a>.</p>
<p>In the late '70’s, Turkey was on the verge of civil war triggered by economic collapse. Democratic government led by Suleyman Demeril unsuccessfully tried to launch a last ditch series of economic reforms which left Turkey unable to buy even the <a href="http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/651731468761064368/pdf/multi0page.pdf">basic commodities</a>. At risk of complete economic breakdown, General Kenan Evren seized power and put in place an authoritarian regime to rule Turkey in 1980.</p>
<p>The new regime pushed a series of <a href="http://www.merip.org/mer/mer122/turkeys-economy-under-generals?ip_login_no_cache=f28c0c3d54a20b0853ae553827d0540c">sweeping changes</a>, including banning unions, controlling wages, banning political parties and removing agricultural subsidies. The push for industrialization was the cornerstone of this strategy. What the regime failed to do was effectively implement the strategy and trust state institutions to do their work. The policies had little input from the bureaucrats who expected to implement them. As a result, real wages were depressed and farming communities suffered losses without subsidies. </p>
<p>In state-sanctioned elections of 1983, Turgat Ozal was elected as prime minister against President Evren’s preferred candidates. Ozal was able to roll back the harsh economic policies and actively push for industrialization. He was able to bring back the professionalization of the bureaucracy by giving them a larger role in policy creation and implementation. Buoyed by the new mediator, newly independent government institutions <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1010748">pushed austerity measures</a> that cut government spending and incentivized foreign investment. Heavy government subsidies for large industries in new economic opportunity zones stabilized and spurred growth in Turkey’s economy.</p>
<p>Meanwhile President Evren, who had <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/02b4a6e4-f6ef-11e4-a9c0-00144feab7de">advocated against</a> this approach to governance approach between 1980 and 1983, seemed to be ready to <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/03058298900190020601">take credit</a> for it by the time 1987 rolled around.</p>
<p>The common pattern observed in the cases of Turkey and Japan is the government’s reliance on an independent civil service, especially in times of political turmoil. </p>
<h2>Ruling and governing: Marriage of convenience?</h2>
<p>The new administration in the U.S. is challenging the autonomy of the civil service by limiting its role in policy creation and implementation. Trump’s election mandate, with significant support from Congress, is to “change things up” in Washington and push for stable economic growth. To achieve this, the administration will need to find a way to work with the civil service and allow it to do its job, not impede it. </p>
<p>Like in Turkey and Japan, the bureaucracy evolves in times of political change. Especially in times of severe political partisanship, reliance on bureaucracy to deliver on campaign promises increases. Trump’s administration needs the technical policy making expertise of bureaucrats to deliver on those promises.</p>
<p>But what is becoming increasingly clear with the <a href="https://theintercept.com/2017/02/01/homeland-security-inspector-general-opens-investigation-of-muslim-ban-rollout-orders-document-preservation/">inefficient rollout</a> of Trump’s travel ban is that his administration may lack willingness to work with relevant bureaucrats to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/05/us/politics/trump-white-house-aides-strategy.html?_r=0">implement its vision</a>. </p>
<p>If the administration continues down this path, we may witness more botched implementation of orders like the travel ban. The quicker the administration reformulates its strategy to work with civil servants, the faster we can expect meaningful policies and their implementation.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/71610/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Adnan Rasool does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Trump administration may do well to make a friend of the federal bureaucracy it’s so intent on gutting, according to an expert who studies the role of civil servants in government.Adnan Rasool, Ph.D. Candidate, Georgia State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/717722017-01-27T02:03:23Z2017-01-27T02:03:23ZTrump takes on federal workforce of 2.8 million that’s showing signs of stress<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/154464/original/image-20170126-30401-w1p0wb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">President Donald Trump signs an executive order implementing a federal government hiring freeze.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Evan Vucci</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>On Jan. 20, President Trump became the head of a sprawling federal bureaucracy. His first major actions as manager were to freeze federal <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/23/us/politics/federal-hiring-freeze.html">hiring</a>, <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/25/politics/trump-epa-lockdowns/">curb</a> the public statements of federal scientists and reportedly <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/26/politics/top-state-department-officials-asked-to-leave-by-trump-administration/index.html">ask</a> the senior management team at the State Department to leave.</p>
<p>These actions are unsettling to a troubled federal workforce whose work will ultimately determine the success of his presidency. </p>
<p>The United States government has a US$4 trillion budget and employs 2.8 million civilian employees and 1.4 million uniformed military <a href="http://www.vanderbilt.edu/csdi/Sourcebook12.pdf">personnel</a>. Indeed, Trump has taken on a management challenge orders of magnitude larger than anything he has ever experienced. </p>
<p>To put it in perspective, the largest company in the world, <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/07/20/revealed-the-biggest-companies-in-the-world-in-2016/">Wal-Mart</a>, has annual revenue of US$482 billion, about 1/12 the size of the federal government. </p>
<p>The president is not taking over one but more than 200 organizations, each with unique opportunities and complex challenges. The enormous budget and millions of federal workers are divided into 200 to 300 distinct agencies, depending upon how you <a href="http://www.vanderbilt.edu/csdi/Sourcebook12.pdf">count</a>. Each agency has its own structure, statutory authority and legal obligations. They also have their own cultures and histories.</p>
<p>There is a lot riding on the president’s management choices. </p>
<p>First, if federal agencies fail, it reflects back as a failure of the president. The poor response by FEMA officials during <a href="http://www.usnews.com/news/the-report/articles/2015/08/28/hurricane-katrina-was-the-beginning-of-the-end-for-george-w-bush">Katrina</a> will always be a legacy of the Bush presidency, just as the <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/amid-va-scandal-outcry-obama-stresses-sacred-obligation-to-veterans/">veterans</a> health care scandal is part of Obama’s legacy. </p>
<p>Second, federal workers regulate markets, provide national defense, land planes, deliver mail, protect civil rights and maintain highways and national parks. If the president is inattentive to the complexity of this challenge, or fails to understand major federal workforce issues, the consequences could be dramatic.</p>
<h2>A troubled federal workforce</h2>
<p>Any new executive assuming control will want to identify parts of their organization that are performing at a high level and, perhaps more importantly, parts that are not. The president’s ultimate success will depend upon the performance of the federal workforce that implements national policy. If government workers fail, the president fails.</p>
<p>During Obama’s second term, my colleague Mark Richardson and I <a href="http://www.vanderbilt.edu/csdi/research/sfgs.php">surveyed</a> 3,500 federal managers to find out where those pitfalls might be. We asked long-time managers whether federal agencies were up to the job of fulfilling the core missions given them by Congress and the president. The study revealed that the federal personnel system is under significant stress.</p>
<p>A significant percentage of managers reported difficulty recruiting and retaining the best employees. They worry that merit is not sufficiently considered in decisions about promotion or dismissals. Factors like political connections or fear of red tape and lawsuits have too much influence over personnel actions, they said. Ultimately, federal managers worry about whether federal agencies have the human capital necessary to fulfill their core missions. </p>
<p>One unique feature of the <a href="http://media.wix.com/ugd/dfd831_af47bccf9ae24f0ea3766eb1ec7b4fa2.pdf">survey</a> was that we asked federal managers to also share their opinions of other agencies, primarily those with which they work day-to-day. </p>
<p>How skilled were the workforces of other agencies? We aggregated their responses into the chart at the end of this piece to get a nice picture of the management challenges facing the new president.</p>
<p>The workforces of agencies such as the Federal Reserve and the National Institutes of Health are perceived as quite skilled. Those of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and Transportation Security Administration less so. Of course, the skills required for some jobs are different from others, but this is what the president confronts on his first weeks in office. One of the primary jobs of a manager is securing the human capital necessary to accomplish the mission of the organization.</p>
<h2>Resistance and turnover</h2>
<p>Federal employees are used to working through changes in administrations between Republicans and Democrats, and pride themselves on their ability to work for either professionally. However, dramatic – and in the view of some, ill-advised – changes in policy can generate resistance or departures. Any president who wants to <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/trumps-team-at-epa-vetting-controversial-public-meetings-and-presentations">dramatically alter</a> the mission of an agency will encounter all-too-human resistance from federal workers who do not share the president’s views.</p>
<p>This resistance can take the form of ignoring or delaying administration proposals. Career officials may write extensive memos about how the new policy contravenes important law or policy and suggest further study. Agencies complain discreetly to sympathetic members of Congress or the press. During his campaign, Trump was <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2016/09/immigration-customs-enforcement-union-endorses-trump-228664">endorsed</a> by two unions in the Department of Homeland Security, but these were an exception among government unions. Most recently, several federal unions have <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2017/01/23/trump-freezes-federal-hiring/?utm_term=.023c701c2be1">spoken out</a> against Trump’s hiring freeze.</p>
<p>At some point, the change in administration may be significant enough that many long-serving career professionals will leave altogether. </p>
<p>In a recent <a href="http://www.nber.org/papers/w22932">paper</a> written with Alex Bolton from Emory University and John de Figueiredo from Duke University, my colleagues and I analyzed data on the careers of federal employees from 1988 to 2011. The data revealed that departures among federal workers increase after a party change in the White House, particularly at the higher levels and in agencies whose views about policy differ substantially from the new president. Historically, for example, there are higher rates of departure in an agency like the Environmental Protection Agency under Republican presidents than Democratic presidents. </p>
<p>People go to work for agencies at least partly because they support the mission of the agency. This means Democrats are more likely to want to work in agencies related to social welfare or regulatory agencies, and Republicans in others such as law enforcement and <a href="http://wagner.nyu.edu/impact/research/separated-powers-united-states-ideology-agencies-presidents-and-congress">defense</a>. </p>
<p>For Trump, turnover is likely to be greatest in agencies like the <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2016/12/13/energy-dept-rejects-trumps-request-to-name-climate-change-workers-who-remain-worried/?utm_term=.0549b90338b0">Department of Energy</a> and <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/22/us/politics/state-department-gender-equality-trump-transition.html?_r=0">State Department</a>, where his actions suggest he has positions at odds with the historic activities and positions of those agencies. The departure of employees with the most expertise and experience can be a real challenge, particularly in areas like emergency response or veteran health.</p>
<p>For Trump, a hiring freeze is one way to make a mark. But to successfully manage the government, he will have to acknowledge the reticence of many to respond to his leadership.</p>
<hr>
<iframe src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/5Iw7W/4/" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" oallowfullscreen="oallowfullscreen" msallowfullscreen="msallowfullscreen" width="100%" height="3896"></iframe><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/71772/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David E Lewis previously received funding from the National Science Foundation and Smith Richardson Foundation. </span></em></p>The president manages more than 200 organizations that make up the federal government. A survey of 3,500 federal managers shows they struggle with recruiting and retaining skilled workers.David E. Lewis, William R Kenan, Jr Professor and Chair of the Department of Political Science; Co-director of the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions., Vanderbilt UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/655062016-09-20T12:19:59Z2016-09-20T12:19:59ZThe civil service must keep calm and carry on with Brexit – but can it?<p>Just as politicians and officials seemed to be getting back into the swing of parliamentary politics again after the summer recess, they are off again until October 10 as party conference season begins. </p>
<p>Usually civil servants are able to use time off from the house to have a bit of a breather. Not this year. The UK’s vote to leave the EU, and more particularly the previous government’s <a href="https://www.civilserviceworld.com/articles/news/brexit-ban-civil-service-planning-was-gross-negligence-say-mps">refusal</a> to allow civil servants to prepare and plan for a possible exit, means officials in almost all departments have not had much respite. </p>
<p>With the EU referendum campaign dominating political discourse in recent months there was already an inevitable backlog of legislative work in the parliamentary system. The determination of the former chancellor, George Osborne, to reduce the size of the state has led to <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/668798a2-4fd3-11e4-a0a4-00144feab7de">unprecedented reductions</a> in the capacity and capabilities of the senior civil service since the election of the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government in 2010. </p>
<p>Whitehall might have been able to gradually recover from the loss of corporate memory and experience this caused, but the challenge of administering Brexit is of an altogether different magnitude.</p>
<h2>Prepared for what?</h2>
<p>The civil service prides itself on offering impartial advice, and it detests not being in a position to offer robust and reliable guidance to its political masters. The <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-minister-david-davis-heckled-with-calls-of-is-that-it-by-mps-as-he-outlines-plans-in-house-of-a7227441.html">recent parliamentary performance</a> of David Davis, the new secretary of state for exiting the European Union, at the first real “Brexit” debate was the most visible (and embarrassing) demonstration of the lack of preparedness and the inadequacy of advice to date. He was unable to answer questions on the government’s policy and admitted he couldn’t articulate a way forward. </p>
<p>It is, however, a reflection of a much wider and fundamental challenge, one that is affecting the traditional ministries just as much as the newly created Brexit ministries: how to offer sound and reliable counsel to ministers in the unforeseeable and uncharted future.</p>
<p>After so long as part of the European Union, nearly all departments will have primary and secondary legislation that needs to be unravelled and replaced. Politicians and the public are clearly expecting any new arrangements to be seamlessly put in place almost immediately. Some departments will also have ongoing delivery programmes dependent on European structures and payments such as the <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/en/funding/erdf/">European Regional Development Fund</a> programmes that run until 2020 or <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020/">Horizon 2020</a>, which provides support for research and innovation. Any, and all new initiatives, innovations or ideas in most departments will probably have to be sacrificed to the great legislative juggernaut that is Brexit.</p>
<p>Officials negotiating with the EU on Brexit or even more generally will be doing so knowing they will not be negotiating from a position of strength or with any precedent or route map for the journey. Repeatedly asserting “Brexit means Brexit” does not amount to a coherent strategy – still less a parliamentary programme.</p>
<h2>Rushed laws are bad laws</h2>
<p>We can expect the legislative programme in the Queen’s Speech at the next state opening of parliament to include a record number of bills because of Brexit. But there is a limit to the capacity of the parliamentary system. You have to wonder just how many of David Cameron’s 21 bills announced in the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/queens-speech-2016">Queen’s Speech in May</a> could or would be sacrificed, even before the current prime minister’s antipathy to the previous regime became apparent.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/137988/original/image-20160915-30608-jgjgyr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/137988/original/image-20160915-30608-jgjgyr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137988/original/image-20160915-30608-jgjgyr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137988/original/image-20160915-30608-jgjgyr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137988/original/image-20160915-30608-jgjgyr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137988/original/image-20160915-30608-jgjgyr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137988/original/image-20160915-30608-jgjgyr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Not so fast.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Matthew Dixon/www.shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There are, of course, many examples of poorly drafted, or poorly scrutinised legislation rushed through parliament which fail to meet their objectives – or ultimately to endure. <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/cones-hotline-put-into-cold-storage-1601950.html">Cones hotlines</a> and the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2012/jan/18/dangerous-dogs-act-in-spotlight">Dangerous Dogs Act 1991</a> are the most famous examples but the current circumstances are of a completely different order.</p>
<p>Unprecedented demand for legislation and long-term reduced capacity in the senior civil service is potentially going to affect a whole swathe of legislation across government for at least the next two years, if not longer. I have no doubt that the civil service will rise to the challenge, but the government, in refusing to increase civil service capacity to deal with Brexit even temporarily, is increasingly painting itself into a corner. </p>
<p>Poorer legislation eventually requiring earlier review will be accompanied by the neglect of much-needed revision of current legislation. For example, when is the government likely to find the time and political courage to revisit the disastrous <a href="http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2012/7/contents/enacted">2012 Health and Social Care Act</a> with the majority of our acute hospitals forecasting deficits this year? The task of tackling inadequate transport infrastructure, uneven economic growth, and the malfunctioning housing or energy markets will have to wait.</p>
<p>The former Labour minister, Nick Raynsford, in a typically understated, honest, insightful but <a href="https://policypress.co.uk/substance-not-spin">candid account</a> of why policies succeed or fail, explicitly acknowledged the need for motivated and experienced civil servants to be working in harmony with government ministers. At a time when this harmony is needed more than ever, the current government shows no sign of trying to acknowledge its need, still less of trying to encourage or achieve it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/65506/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Murphy is former senior civil servant. </span></em></p>The mandarins tasked with making Brexit happen are under strain.Peter Murphy, Principal Lecturer in Public Service Management, Programme Director, Nottingham Trent UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/624472016-07-13T20:57:07Z2016-07-13T20:57:07ZThis time the uprising in Zimbabwe is different – but will it bring regime change?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/130430/original/image-20160713-12362-l7oeam.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Riot police detain residents of Epworth suburb after a protest by taxi drivers turned violent in Harare, Zimbabwe.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters/Philimon Bulawayo </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Zimbabwe’s ruling Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) has failed to develop sustainable institutions that could drive a more democratic vision of sovereignty and liberation. It has also been found lacking in creating a more consensual, hegemonic and much less coercive form of rule. </p>
<p>This failure has been central to the demands of dissenting voices and political organisations in the southern African state. It has also brought about a different type of protest against the Zimbabwean government.</p>
<p>Since the <a href="https://theconversation.com/sham-or-not-election-flaws-unlikely-to-unseat-mugabe-16737">2013 elections</a>, convulsions within the ruling party have intensified to unprecedented levels. The <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-36776401">recent protests</a> in the public and informal sectors have exposed both the limits of ZANU-PF’s politics and the failure of its economic policies. The delays in payment of <a href="https://www.enca.com/africa/mugabe-blames-eu-us-sanctions-for-failure-to-pay-zim-civil-servants">civil servants</a> in June led to a widespread strike of teachers, health workers and other civil servants. The ruling party has managed for the time being to maintain payment to its security sector. </p>
<h2>Who’s the next president?</h2>
<p>Analytical commentary on Zimbabwe’s struggles has focused on the nature and causes of the contestations and centred mainly on the question of <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-mugabes-latest-challenger-will-find-it-hard-to-break-the-mould-57587">presidential succession</a>. There are no clear answers to who will succeed an intransigent <a href="http://www.biography.com/people/robert-mugabe-9417391">President Robert Mugabe</a>, who has been in power since 1987.</p>
<p>Common to all the analyses is the challenge of stabilising and democratising the state by dealing both with the legacies of the colonial period and their new iterations in the post-colonial era.</p>
<p>This problem is not unique to Zimbabwe. It continues to haunt the state in post-colonial Africa, as it is forced to contend with the legacies of both structural inequalities and despotic forms of rule.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/130432/original/image-20160713-12397-km2osr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/130432/original/image-20160713-12397-km2osr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130432/original/image-20160713-12397-km2osr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130432/original/image-20160713-12397-km2osr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130432/original/image-20160713-12397-km2osr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130432/original/image-20160713-12397-km2osr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130432/original/image-20160713-12397-km2osr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">President Robert Mugabe and his wife Grace during the recent ‘One Million Man March’ in Harare.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters/Philimon Bulawayo. TPX Images of the Day</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In Zimbabwe this problem has manifested itself in a centralised, <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-liberators-turn-into-oppressors-a-study-of-southern-african-states-57213">authoritarian ruling party</a> that has conflated its operations with those of the state.</p>
<p>Despite ongoing discussions with international <a href="https://theconversation.com/zimbabwes-finance-minister-makes-a-doomed-pitch-to-londons-big-businesses-62015">financial institutions</a> for new loans and budgetary support, this is unlikely to bring any respite in the near future. The funders are demanding certain conditions for any future loans. These include a credible repayment plan on past debt, security of property rights and certain reforms in governance. At present these demands are unlikely to be met.</p>
<p>Moreover, given the well-known effects of such conditionalities around debt repayment on developing countries, they would most likely exacerbate the crisis if they were implemented in the current context. Any substantive strategy on the way forward in Zimbabwe would require not only wide-ranging political reforms but also a new discussion on debt relief.</p>
<p>The challenges in the public sector have been compounded by a recent policy that has outraged the reportedly <a href="http://www.zw.one.un.org/newsroom/news/what-will-it-take-formalize-informal-sector">94% of Zimbabweans</a> who now make their living in the informal sector.</p>
<h2>Anger from the informal sector</h2>
<p>In June the government promulgated <a href="http://www.cfuzim.org/index.php/legal-the-law/6911-statutory-instrument-64-of-2016-control-of-goods-open-general-import-licence-no-2-amendment-notice-2016-no-8">Statutory Instrument 64 </a>, which banned the importing of a number of products that are traded in the informal sector. These include: coffee creamers, camphor creams, white petroleum jellies, body creams, baked beans, potato crisps, bottled water, mayonnaise, salad cream, peanut butter, canned fruit, cheese and many other items.</p>
<p>Most of these are products are sold by vendors in the now critically important informal sector. The sudden policy change, which was not subject to public discussion with those most affected by it, immediately incited considerable anger from the informal sector. In the <a href="https://www.newsday.co.zw/2016/06/23/import-ban-fallout-deepens/">words</a> of the chair of the National Vendor’s Union of Zimbabwe, Stern Zvorwadza:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The government is responsible for the poverty and pushing people into being vendors and cross-border traders, yet the same government is coming up with policies to stop people from earning an honest living at a time when they have killed the economy and failed to create jobs.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The sheer lack of planning and callousness on the part of the state was clear to the Zimbabwean citizenry. In response to this policy and the abuse of numerous police road blocks to extort money from taxi drivers, the country experienced a <a href="http://www.cnbcafrica.com/news/southern-africa/2016/07/08/zimbabwe-tipping-point-harare-as-country-faces-unprecedented-revolt/">mass stay-away</a> in the first week of July. </p>
<p>At this stage it appears that the protest was organised through a number of new organisations, not tied to any political party, that use social media campaigns. These include <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Occupy-Africa-Unity-Square-386483044833537/">Occupy Africa Unity Square</a>, <a href="http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2016-05-22-the-simple-genius-of-zimbabwes-thisflag-protest-and-the-man-who-started-it/">#ThisFlag</a> and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/TajamukaSesjikile-Campaign-1207194655958782/">Tajamuka/Sesjikile</a>.</p>
<h2>Different type of activism</h2>
<p>This movement is different to earlier forms of civic activism in a number of ways. First, it does not appear to be driven by any particular political party. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/130431/original/image-20160713-12377-1ajywkd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/130431/original/image-20160713-12377-1ajywkd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130431/original/image-20160713-12377-1ajywkd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130431/original/image-20160713-12377-1ajywkd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130431/original/image-20160713-12377-1ajywkd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=542&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130431/original/image-20160713-12377-1ajywkd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=542&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130431/original/image-20160713-12377-1ajywkd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=542&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Social media plays a central role in organising protests in Zimbabwe.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters/Philimon Bulawayo</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Second, since the demise of the structures of the labour movement in the first decade of the 2000s, the forms of organisation in the informal sector have become much more fluid. The result is that this form of activism is more difficult for the state to track, but it also makes such interventions more fragile and more difficult to sustain.</p>
<p>Third, the modality of protest appears to have drawn from forms used in <a href="http://ewn.co.za/2016/06/14/Police-blame-Municipal-Demarcation-Board-for-Vuwani-protests">South African protest movements</a>. These include the burning of buildings, such as the torching of the Zimbabwe Revenue Service <a href="http://www.iol.co.za/news/africa/beit-bridge-burns-2041112">building</a> at the Beit Bridge border between South Africa and Zimbabwe, and the burning of tyres in the streets.</p>
<p>This is not surprising given <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-precarious-road-zimbabweans-travel-to-seek-a-new-life-in-south-africa-58911">migration trends</a> since 2000. Moreover there is much greater scepticism about the “rule of law” postulated by the state. This is viewed as an imposition by an authoritarian state which treats the populace as targets to be controlled, largely through the use of force.</p>
<p>Zimbabwe may be witnessing a change in the idea of citizenship. In the coming period it will be important to track not only the future of such activism but, just as importantly, the responses of the state beyond the current brutality of the police interventions.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/62447/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brian Raftopoulos is the Director of Research and Advocacy for Solidarity Peace Trust, an NGO working on Human Rights issues in Zimbabwe. </span></em></p>Zimbabwe has experienced another wave of discontent, manifesting in protests by its citizenry. This may well herald a change in the idea of citizenship in the country.Brian Raftopoulos, Professor, University of the Western CapeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.