ABSTRACT

The rudimentary civil service which existed at the beginning of the nineteenth century still relied heavily on patronage, and lacked the expertise and reliability that the introduction and supervision of the new policies required. The administrative system of government, at least in its formal structure, reflects the source and nature of authority in the political system it serves. Representative systems of government in which all power is vested in the elected members of parliament or local authority logically exclude the right of the citizen to participate directly in the management and delivery of public services. The key features of bureaucracy, from which its efficiency is primarily derived, are hierarchy, specialisation and the methods of selecting and motivating personnel. In recent years some statutory social services organisations such as hospitals and local authority social services departments have made increasing efforts to recruit the support of volunteers.