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From: Victor Milne
To: futurework
Subject: civil service
Date: Wednesday, October 28, 1998 9:28PM
That was a great posting from Ed Weick on the civil service. It is another
institution that needs to be rebuilt if we ever wrest control of this
country from the business cult.
I think there are two main reasons why the civil service is now so
ineffective: insufficient staff to fulfil its mandates and demoralization.
One cause of the demoralization is obviously the staff cuts themselves. When
people see good workers getting the axe in a downsizing (whether in public
service or a private company) the survivors become dispirited.
The other reason is, I think, the unremitting denigration of civil servants
that comes from business and media and their own right-wing bosses in
parliament or legislative assembly.
<snip>
Many years age the late Gov. George Wallace was running for Pres of
the US. As part of his campaign rhetoric he used to laugh and say, 'when I
become Pres I am going to march those pointy-headed bureucrats with their
briefcases into the Potomac River. Ha, ha, ha.' Well, the rhetoric isn't
as honest or as clear but governments seem to have internalized many of
these feelings.
So the question of declining morale is real. Elected officials are
too busy dividing the spoils, many have forgotten that they were elected to
govern. When they say again and again 'our business plan is this' or when
they say 'memo is needed by close of business' ----in a number of ways
governments mimic the behaviour and thoughts of business.
The assault on the role and mandate of government is not limited to
the right. It is implicit in most parties, right and left. It is part of
the swinging pendulum, agreed, but in its wake will be much wreckage---too
much to go into now.
arthur cordell
