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APPOINTMENTS TO THE HIGHEST GRADES IN THE CIVIL SERVICE – DRAWING THE CURTAIN OPEN
Author(s) -
RICHARDS DAVID
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
public administration
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.313
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1467-9299
pISSN - 0033-3298
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9299.1996.tb00889.x
Subject(s) - civil servants , prime minister , civil service , service (business) , politics , political science , prime (order theory) , public administration , public relations , sociology , public service , law , business , marketing , mathematics , combinatorics
The appointments process to the higher civil service is important but little information about it is in the public domain. This article provides such information, using material gathered from a series of interviews with senior civil servants. Part one offers an authorized account of the procedures for senior appointments. The second part makes use of information I gathered from officials closely involved in the procedures, to piece together what actually occurs, in a still highly secretive area of Whitehall proceedings and highlights the disparity between‘official theory’and actual practice. The article concludes by suggesting that a dominant Prime Minister has the potential to use a system, originally fashioned by Whitehall, for Whitehall, for political purposes.