Civil service

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Not to be confused with Alternative civilian service.
For the album by Typical Cats, see Civil Service (album).
The term civil service can refer to either a branch of governmental service in which
individuals are employed (hired) on the basis of professional merit as proven by competitive
examinations; or the body of employees in any government agency apart from the military,
which is a separate extension of any national government.
A civil servant or public servant is a person in the public sector employed for a government
department or agency. The extent of civil servants of a state as part of the "civil service"
varies from country to country. In the United Kingdom, for instance, only Crown (national
government) employees are referred to as civil servants whereas county or city employees are
not.
Many consider the study of civil service to be a part of the field of public administration.
Workers in "non-departmental public bodies" (sometimes called "QUANGOs") may also be
classed as civil servants for the purpose of statistics and possibly for their terms and
conditions. Collectively a state's civil servants form its civil service or public service.
An international civil servant or international staff member is a civilian employee that is
employed by an intergovernmental organization.[1] These international civil servants do not
resort under any national legislation (from which they have immunity of jurisdiction) but are
governed by an internal staff regulations. All disputes related to international civil service are
brought before special tribunals created by these international organizations such as, for
instance, the Administrative Tribunal of the ILO. (For more info see International Civil
Service Update by Bertold Theeuwes.)[2]
Specific referral can be made to the International Civil Service Commission (ICSC) of the
United Nations, an independent expert body established by the United Nations General
Assembly. Its mandate is to regulate and coordinate the conditions of service of staff in the
United Nations common system, while promoting and maintaining high standards in the
international civil service.

Contents

1 History
o 1.1 Civil service in China
o 1.2 Modern civil service
2 By countries
o 2.1 Australia
o 2.2 Brazil
o 2.3 Canada
o 2.4 China
o 2.5 France
o 2.6 Germany
o 2.7 Greece
o 2.8 India

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2.9 Ireland
2.10 Japan
2.11 Spain
2.12 United Kingdom
2.13 United States
2.14 European Union
2.15 Pakistan
3 See also
o 3.1 General
o 3.2 By continent or region
o 3.3 Pay and benefits
4 References
5 Further reading
6 External links

History
Civil service in China

Imperial Civil Service Examination hall with 7500 cells in Guangdong, 1873.

Emperor Wen of Sui (r. 581604), who established the first civil service examination system
in China; a painting by the chancellor and artist Yan Liben (600673).

The origin[3] of the modern meritocratic civil service can be traced back to Imperial
examination founded in Imperial China. The Imperial exam based on merit[4] was designed to
select the best administrative officials for the state's bureaucracy. This system had a huge
influence on both society and culture in Imperial China and was directly responsible for the
creation of a class of scholar-bureaucrats irrespective of their family pedigree.[5]
Originally, appointments to the bureaucracy were based on the patronage of aristocrats;
During Han dynasty,Emperor Wu of Han established the xiaolian system of recommendation
by superiors for appointments to office. In the areas of administration, especially the military,
appointments were based solely on merit. This was an early form of the imperial
examinations, transitioning from inheritance and patronage to merit, in which local officials
would select candidates to take part in an examination of the Confucian classics.[5] After the
fall of the Han Dynasty, the Chinese bureaucracy regressed into a semi-merit system known
as the Nine-rank system.
This system was reversed during the short-lived Sui Dynasty (581618), which initiated a
civil service bureaucracy recruited through written examinations and recommendation. The
first civil service examination system was established by Emperor Wen of Sui. Emperor Yang
of Sui established a new category of recommended candidates for the mandarinate in AD 605.
The following Tang Dynasty (618907) adopted the same measures for drafting officials, and
decreasingly relied on aristocratic recommendations and more and more on promotion based
on the results of written examinations.The structure of the examination system was
extensively expanded during the reign of Wu Zetian[6] The system reached its apogee during
the Song dynasty.[7]
In theory, the Chinese civil-service system provided one of the major outlets for social
mobility in Chinese society, although in practice, due to the time-consuming nature of the
study, the examination was generally only taken by sons of the landed gentry.[8] The
examination tested the candidate's memorization of the Nine Classics of Confucianism and his
ability to compose poetry using fixed and traditional forms and calligraphy. In the late 19th
century the system came under increasing internal dissatisfaction, and it was criticized as not
reflecting the candidate's ability to govern well, and for giving precedence to style over
content and originality of thought. The system was finally abolished by the Qing government
in 1905, as part of a package of reforms.
The Chinese system was often admired by European commentators from the 16th century
onward.[9]

Modern civil service

In the 18th century, in response to economic changes and the growth of the British Empire,
the bureau