ABSTRACT
As political executives, ministers are dependent on bureaucrats in two important respects. They call on their assistance to develop and present their policies, and they delegate decision-making authority to them to relieve themselves of part of the executive burden. In either case, the ministers are concerned with the political responsiveness of their advisors and administrative executives responsible for implementing policy. The question is whether this assistance is and should be provided by career civil servants recruited on a merit basis or by political appointees. Analytically, this involves two issues: (1) when should we expect political appointments to take place, and when should we expect a merit-based civil service? (2) assuming that political appointees are more responsive to political guidance than career civil servants, can ministers do anything to strengthen the incentives of career civil servants to be responsive to their political guidance?
