ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the impact of the rule of law on the evolution of public service. It recognizes that human resource professionals must also master workplace discrimination laws, wage and hour laws, employee benefit laws, workplace safety laws, and immigration laws. The chapter argues that the civil service reform movement began as a moral good government campaign to rescue the nations democratic institutions from the evils of the spoils system. For decades, the discipline of public administration successfully avoided close judicial oversight and the rule of law. To a certain degree, the new public service model recognized the special status of public employees in the US constitutional form of government. Among public management and constitutional rule-of-law scholars, the patronage cases touched off a heated debate over the importance of bureaucratic responsiveness in ensuring public agencies efficient and effective operation.
