The Politics of Appointment of Top Civil Servants : Career Backgrounds and Civil Service Politicization in the Czech Republic

Kód výsledku v IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216224%3A14230%2F20%3A00114633" target="_blank" >RIV/00216224:14230/20:00114633 - isvavai.cz</a>

Výsledek na webu

<a href="https://content.sciendo.com/view/journals/nispa/13/2/article-p75.xml" target="_blank" >https://content.sciendo.com/view/journals/nispa/13/2/article-p75.xml</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.2478/nispa-2020-0015" target="_blank" >10.2478/nispa-2020-0015</a>

Jazyk výsledku

angličtina

Název v původním jazyce

The Politics of Appointment of Top Civil Servants : Career Backgrounds and Civil Service Politicization in the Czech Republic

Popis výsledku v původním jazyce

Th is contribution seeks to answer the question whether the new civil service legislation that entered into force in 2015 in the Czech Republic led to the depoliticization of the country’s ministerial bureaucracy. To that end, we compare the career backgrounds of top civil servants before and aft er the entry into force of the new Civil Service Act. Th e article examines the career backgrounds of the persons appointed as ministerial deputies between 2013 and 2018, focusing on their last “pre-deputy” jobs and considering a broader set of their career attributes. A focus on the previous job reveals that even before the law was introduced, bureaucrats constituted the largest share of appointees, and their share even increased with the new legislation. Th e incidence of deputies appointed directly from party-related jobs dropped considerably. However, when a broader set of career attributes is considered, the share of partisans among the pre-2015 deputies nearly matches that of the career bureaucrats. Ostensibly political careers among the post-2015 deputies declined but remain signifi cant. Hence, there has been a decline in the open politicization of the ministerial bureaucracy aft er 2015. Party political eff ects also matter, as the new ANO party, aft er entering the executive, has taken a diff erent approach to top bureaucratic appointments than the other major governing Czech parties. Typically, deputies appointed into the positions under the ANO’s control would not have links to the party itself but would be recruited via non-party channels, e.g. from pre-political networks of the ANO ministers and leaders. Consequently, though less politicized by party agents, the current Czech system is more a product of choices made by government ministers of the day than a stable arrangement resulting from fi rmly established norms and rules.

Název v anglickém jazyce

The Politics of Appointment of Top Civil Servants : Career Backgrounds and Civil Service Politicization in the Czech Republic

Popis výsledku anglicky

Th is contribution seeks to answer the question whether the new civil service legislation that entered into force in 2015 in the Czech Republic led to the depoliticization of the country’s ministerial bureaucracy. To that end, we compare the career backgrounds of top civil servants before and aft er the entry into force of the new Civil Service Act. Th e article examines the career backgrounds of the persons appointed as ministerial deputies between 2013 and 2018, focusing on their last “pre-deputy” jobs and considering a broader set of their career attributes. A focus on the previous job reveals that even before the law was introduced, bureaucrats constituted the largest share of appointees, and their share even increased with the new legislation. Th e incidence of deputies appointed directly from party-related jobs dropped considerably. However, when a broader set of career attributes is considered, the share of partisans among the pre-2015 deputies nearly matches that of the career bureaucrats. Ostensibly political careers among the post-2015 deputies declined but remain signifi cant. Hence, there has been a decline in the open politicization of the ministerial bureaucracy aft er 2015. Party political eff ects also matter, as the new ANO party, aft er entering the executive, has taken a diff erent approach to top bureaucratic appointments than the other major governing Czech parties. Typically, deputies appointed into the positions under the ANO’s control would not have links to the party itself but would be recruited via non-party channels, e.g. from pre-political networks of the ANO ministers and leaders. Consequently, though less politicized by party agents, the current Czech system is more a product of choices made by government ministers of the day than a stable arrangement resulting from fi rmly established norms and rules.

Druh

J_SC - Článek v periodiku v databázi SCOPUS

CEP obor

—

OECD FORD obor

50601 - Political science

Projekt

<a href="/cs/project/GA18-15700S" target="_blank" >GA18-15700S: Životopisy a výkon politiků v České republice a na Slovensku</a><br>

Návaznosti

P - Projekt vyzkumu a vyvoje financovany z verejnych zdroju (s odkazem do CEP)

Rok uplatnění

2020

Kód důvěrnosti údajů

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Název periodika

NISPAcee Journal of Public Administration and Policy

ISSN

1337-9038

e-ISSN

1338-4309

Svazek periodika

13

Číslo periodika v rámci svazku

2

Stát vydavatele periodika

DE - Spolková republika Německo

Počet stran výsledku

18

Strana od-do

75-92

Kód UT WoS článku

000599609200005

EID výsledku v databázi Scopus

2-s2.0-85098641991