Neutrality: An Enduring Principle of the Federal Service

Abstract

Although many proponents of civil service reform question the principles of classical American public administration and specifically reject its neutral competence model of federal service, the principle of neutrality continues to be an important belief of federal career executives. This finding is based on an analysis of responses to a survey of 1,045 high-level (SES and GM-15) careerists and 242 political appointees from 15 federal organizations undertaken in November and December of 1987. As expected, Reagan political appointees profess slightly more support for the neutrality principle than their career subordinates. Still, careerist support for the principle is high and relatively uniform across organizations. The highest levels of the career bureaucracy, the Senior Executive Service, seem slightly more likely than their GM-15 subordinates to profess support for neutrality. Finally, support for this principle does not seem to improve career-noncareer relations, which instead appear to turn on the goal congruity of the organization and presidential policy. The attachment of career executives to the neutrality principle cannot be ignored by those who seek to reform the federal service.