Book Review: The Civil Service in Liberal Democracies. An Introductory Survey
| DOI | 10.1177/014473949001000207 |
| Published date | 01 September 1990 |
| Date | 01 September 1990 |
| Author | Geoffrey K. Fry |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
Teaching
Public
Administration:
Autumn
1990 vol. X
no.2
pp.58-68
BOOK
REVIE"WS
The
Civil
Service
in
Liberal
Democracies.
An
IntroductorT
SurveT
J.E.
KINGDOM
(ed.)
(Routledge,
1989,
pp.219,
£9.95.)
The
comparative
study
of
Civil
Services
has
been
a
relatively
neglected
field
since
Brian
Chapman
published
his
authoritative
book
about
European
Civil
Services
in
1959.
There
has
been
much
British
interest
in
the
French
Civil
Service,
and
in
Swedish
arrangements
for
dividing
policy
Ministries
from
executive
agencies.
There
has
been
some
interest
too
in
the
relative
roles
assigned
to
political
appointees
and
career
civil
servants
in
the
US
Federal
Civil
Service.
While
what
is
really
needed
is
for
an
academic
or
a
team
of
such
authorities
to
repeat
Chapman's
feat
of
thirty
years
or
so
to
conduct
a
high
level
comparative
study
of
Civil
Services,
adding
North
American
examples
this
time,
an
introductory
survey
is
the
next
best
thing
at
present.
This
collection
of
essays
edited
by
J E
Kingdom,
Principal
Lecturer
in
the
Department
of
Public
Sector
Administration
and
Law
at
Sheffield
City
Polytechnic,
is
an
introductory
survey
and
a
good
one.
Kingdom
himself
provides
a
thoughtful
introduction,
and
then
accounts
of
the
structure
of
and
modern
developments
of
the
Civil
Service
of
Britain
and
Canada.
The
other
Civil
Services
that
are
analysed
are
those
of
Eire
(M
McManus),
Italy
(R E
Spence),
Sweden
(B M
Jones),
Western
Germany
(A
R
Peters)
and
the
US
Federal
Civil
Service
(J
A
Chandler).
At
the
introductory
level
at
which
the
collection
is
intended
the
essays
are
always
interesting,
and
the
project
plainly
has
been
a
success.
This
is
especially
admirable
given
that
the
reading
lists
confirm
the
impression
that
one
country
studies
of
Civil
Services
have
not
been
prolific
in
recent
years,
thus
often
denying
the
authors
supporting
material
from
which
to
draw.
So,
for
once,
it
really
can
be
said
that
this
book
fills
an
important
gap
in
the
literature
of
public
administration.
Department
of
Politics
University
of
Leeds
58
GEOFFREY K. FRY
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