This collection provides valuable information about the structures and composition of the higher civil service and its position in the political structure through a comparative analysis of Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria, Greece, Denmark, and Sweden. The book explores how higher civil service has developed in the light of the massive changes in European societies in the past thirty years.

Edward Charles Page is Professor of Politics at the University of Hull
Vincent Wright is Fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford University

• Introduction


• A Description of the Greek Higher Civil Service


• Spain: Still the Primacy of Corporatism?


• Italy's Senior Civil Service: An Ossified World


• The Senior Civil Service in France


• Senior Officials in Austria


• The Senior Civil Service in Belgium


• Senior Officials in the German Federal Administration: Institutional Change and Positional Differentiation


• The British Senior Civil Service


• The Senior Civil Service in The Netherlands: A Quest for Unity


• Senior Officials in the Danish Central Administration: From Bureaucrats to Policy Professionals and Managers


• The Welfare State Managers: Senior Civil Servants in Sweden


• Conclusion