Governance and Civil Service Reform : A Regional Program

[摘要] This article reports on theimplementation of a long-term capacity building approach tocivil service reform. It starts with a review of past WorldBank support to civil service reform and confirms that thecost containment approach achieved neither fiscalstabilization nor efficiency objectives despite heavypolitical and social costs. The rather disappointing resultsare traced to the patrimonial character of the state whosefeatures in the civil service context are: recruitment basedon subjective and ascriptive criteria; public employmentmanaged as a welfare system; pay levels that are unrelatedto productivity; loyalty of officials to the person of theruler rather than to the state; and formalism ofadministrative rules and procedures rather than thesubstance. The paper argues that the direction ofimprovement lies in improved governance; a broader approachto civil service reform. Improving governance would beginwith an assessment of the institutional environment whichdetermines the patrimonial profile of the country: high whenall of these factors are absent, low when they are present.This would be followed by the adoption of a strategy forreform that could be a comprehensive approach, an enclaveapproach or a hybrid approach, depending on whether thecountry's patrimonial profile is high, low or average, respectively.

[发布机构] World Bank, Washington, DC

[学科分类] 社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

[关键词] ACCOUNTABILITY;ACTION PLANNING;BUILDING CONSENSUS;CAPACITY BUILDING;CIVIL SERVICE