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The partisan–professional dichotomy revisited: Politicization and decision‐making of senior civil servants
Author(s) -
Ebinger Falk,
Veit Sylvia,
Fromm Nadin
Publication year - 2019
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/padm.12613
Subject(s) - civil servants , meritocracy , bureaucracy , reputation , politics , contradiction , political science , public administration , vignette , loyalty , ambivalence , administration (probate law) , state (computer science) , sociology , law , social psychology , psychology , philosophy , epistemology , algorithm , computer science
Politicization has an ambivalent reputation among public administration scholars. While considered an effective instrument to safeguard political control over ministerial bureaucracy, partisanship of senior civil servants is likewise associated with patronage and is deemed detrimental to professionalism and meritocracy. To scrutinize this contradiction, the article examines how the party‐political background of senior civil servants influences their decision‐making behaviour. Two theoretically derived conceptions of loyalty are therefore put to the test: responsiveness and responsibility. Effects are captured by using the vignette technique in 40 in‐depth interviews with former senior civil servants from ministerial departments at federal and state level in Germany. The results are surprising in so far as they reveal that politicized senior civil servants act neither more responsively nor less responsibly than their non‐politicized peers. These findings challenge common assumptions and call for a more refined analysis of the conditions under which politicization leads to negative effects.