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.
As Democrat and Republican leaders negotiate a potential spending deal to fund the government, the partial shutdown of 2013 offers some clues about the economic impact should they fail.
For decades, presidents routinely replaced large swaths of the government workforce, often requiring them to pay fees to political parties in exchange for their jobs.
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.
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.
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 University