The Civil Service Chronology

This first volume of the Official History of the UK Civil Service covers its evolution from the Northcote-Trevelyan Report of 1854 to the first years of Mrs Thatcher’s government in 1981. Despite current concerns with good governance and policy delivery, little serious attention has been paid to the institution vital to both: the Civil Service. This Official History is designed to remedy this by placing present problems in historical context and by providing a helpful structure in which others, and particularly former officials, may contribute to the debate. Starting with the seminal 1854 Northcote-Trevelyan Report, it covers the ‘lost opportunity’ of the 1940s when the Service failed to adapt the needs of ‘big government’ as advocated by Beveridge and Keynes. It then examines, in greater detail, the belated attempts at modernisation in the 1960s, the Service’s vilification in the 1970s and the final destruction of the ‘old order’ during the first years of Mrs Thatcher’s government. Particular light is shed on the origins of such current concerns as the role of special advisers the need for a Prime Minister’s Department the evolution of Parliamentary Select Committees to resolve the potential tension between bureaucracy and Parliamentary democracy. This Official History is based on extensive research into both recently released and unreleased papers as well as interviews with leading participants. It has important lessons to offer all those, both inside and outside the UK, seeking to improve the quality of democratic government. This book will be of great interest to all students of British history, British government and politics, and of public administration in general.

The History of the United States Civil Service: From the Postwar Years to the Twenty-First Century provides a broad, comprehensive overview of the US civil service in the postwar period and examines the reforms and changes throughout that time. The author situates the history of the civil service into a wider context, considering political, social and cultural changes that occurred and have been influential in the history of American government. The book analyzes the development of administrative reorganizations, administrative reforms, personnel policy and political thought on public administration. It also underlines continuity and changes in the structures, organization, and personnel management of the federal civil service, and the evolution of the role of presidential control over federal bureaucracy. Taking an essential, but often neglected organization as its focus, the text offers a rich, historical analysis of an important institution in American politics. This book will be of interest to teachers and students of American political history and the history of government, as well as more specifically, the Presidency, Public Administration, and Administrative Law.