ABSTRACT
As a major employer, the federal civil service served for a long time as a model for other sectors. Many of the practices observed at the national level, therefore, also characterised other levels in the public sector. However, the redistribution of competencies between levels of government severely decreased the importance of the federal civil service. Large numbers of civil servants were transferred from the federal to the subnational state level as a result of the federalisation process. In 2000, 29.7 per cent of civil servants worked at the federal level (federal government and particular bodies, such as courts, army, federal police), but only 6.8 per cent were employed in the ministries (Federaal Ministerie van Ambtenarenzaken 2001). Not only had the federal civil service been severely reduced, but the most dynamic sectors of government had been transferred to the regions and communities. The federal level was left with some classic departments, such as Finance and Justice, with the Ministry of Justice having an especially strong reputation for its conservatism. This certainly had an impact on the capacity for innovation, and the federal level seemed more resistant to change than the new administrations. At the subnational level, the federalisation process created opportunities for innovation. Without the constraints of past legacies, and unhampered by the serious budgetary problems which the federal level faced, the new institutions at the subnational state level had the opportunity to prove themselves. Within a common framework (General Principles of the Public Servants Statute), the communities and regions were also given far-reaching autonomy in their personnel management (Brans and Steen 2006).
