ABSTRACT
The reform of the career civil service constitutes one of the fundamental principles of administrative modernization. Career civil service claims to create clear incentives for improving the development of public services, reduce discretion in the organization of positions, and corruption; but in order to carry it out, it is necessary to establish control mechanisms which are difficult to monitor, such as performance evaluation and accountability. Career civil service guarantees continuity and institutional memory, but, on the other hand, generates power domains, so that it is necessary to consider an optimum scheme combining flexibility and good management of human resources. The career civil service, of course, is not the solution to all the problems of government. On the contrary, it is a system that presents diverse advantages, and disadvantages, that should be evaluated in the particular context of each case before any government decides to adopt it.
