Ann Chambers, age 14, of Cumberland, Md., for her question:
JUST WHAT IS CIVIL SERVICE?
Civil service is a name generally given to paid nonmilitary service in nonelective office in the executive branch of government. Civil service employees in most modern countries are selected by competitive examination.
In certain countries, including the United States and France, the term civil service is applied to governmental positions on all levels, from federal to municipal. In other countries, notably Great Britain, the term is used to denote only positions in the national government.
Until the second half of the 19th Century, elected government officials in most countries regarded appointive posts under their jurisdiction as political prizes to be distributed among influential or faithful supporters. The first significant departure from this practice occurred in Great Britain in 1855, when examinations were conducted by government order among selected candidates for certain minor positions.
The U.S. Constitution vests the President with extraordinary powers in the selection of executive branch personnel, and George Washington set a precedent by appointing federal employees almost solely on the grounds of ability. Washington's successor, John Adams, was similarly beyond reproach in exercising his appointive powers, until his last night in office. Fearing that Thomas Jefferson, the newly elected chief executive, would appoint extremists among his followers to a number of offices recently established by Congress, Adams filled the offices with his followers. These and other appointees of Adams were promptly dismissed from office by Jefferson.
By the time Andrew Jackson took office, merit figured only secondarily in executive branch appointments. For many years all appointive positions were political plunder. Public indignation over the spoils system grew by the end of the 1800s.
In 1877 the New York Civil Service Reform Association was established and similar organizations in other cities were formed. The National Civil Service Reform League, established in 1881, led the subsequent fight for congressional reform.
The vindictive assassination of President James Garfield in 1881 by an unsuccessful candidate for a federal post transformed the question of civil service reform into a national political issue.
In 1883 Congress passed the Civil Service Act, legislation that created the foundations of the American civil service system. Among the major features of the act are provisions for the selection of civil service personnel by open competitive examinations; guarantees to civil service employees against coercion in any form for political reasons or solicitation in government buildings by other federal employees for political purposes; and allocation to the states and territories, in proportion to population, of appointments from lists of eligible applications to fill ail positions available in Washington, D.C.
From time to time, Congress has enacted legislation designated to improve the original Civil Service Act.