This book addresses an important issue and debate in public administration: the politicization of civil service systems and personnel. Using a comparative framework the authors address issues such as compensation, appointments made from outside the civil service system, anonymity, partisanship and systems used to handle appointees of prior administrations in the US, Canada, Germany, France, Britain, New Zealand, Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain and Greece.

1. Politicization of the Civil Service: Concepts, Causes, Consequences B. Guy Peters and John Pierre 2. Political Responsiveness in a Merit Bureaucracy Joergen Gronnegaard Christensen 3. Politicization of the Swedish Civil Service: A Necessary Evil - Or Just Evil? Jon Pierre 4. The Politicization of the German Civil Service: A Three-Dimensional Portrait of the Ministerial Bureaucracy Eckhard Schroeter 5. Politicization of the Civil Service in France: From Structural to Strategic Politicization Luc Rouban 6. The British Civil Service: Examining the Question of Politicisation Charlotte Dargie and Rachel Locke 7. Politicization in the United States B. Guy Peters 8. The Search for a Responsive Bureaucracy in Canada Donald J. Savoie