1. Personnel Policies GOVT 2305, Module 14
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GOVT 2305, Module 14

2. What attitude does the cartoonist have about government employees?
Federal Personnel
The size of the federal civilian bureaucracy has grown dramatically since the early days of the nation. In 1800, only about 3,000 persons worked for the U.S. government. That figure grew to 95,000 by and half a million in Today, 2.7 million civilian employees are stationed in every state and city in the country and almost every nation in the world.
What attitude does the cartoonist have about government employees?

3. Number of Federal Employees
Why does the number of federal workers periodically spike? (Hint: Look at the dates of the spikes.)
Census workers

4. True size of the bureaucracy
Political scientist Paul C. Light estimates that the true size of the federal civilian workforce is million employees instead of the 2.7 million on the official payroll. Congress and the president are playing a shell game to disguise the size of the federal government.
Contract workers
State and local government employees working on federally funded programs
Federal grant beneficiaries at colleges and universities

5. Spoils system
The method of hiring government employees from among the friends, relatives, and supporters of elected officeholders was known as the spoils system. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the spoils system?
The spoils system is great if you control the spoils because you can hire your friends, relatives, and supporters. From a good policy perspective, it is bad because many of these people may be unqualified.
The spoils system is associated with President Andrew Jackson.

6. Pendleton Act
When a disgruntled office seeker assassinated President James Garfield in 1881, Congress passed and the president signed the Pendleton Act. It created a Civil Service Commission to establish a hiring system based on competitive examinations and protect federal workers from dismissal for political reasons.

7. Hatch act
In 1939, Congress enacted another reform, the Hatch Act, which was a measure designed to restrict the political activities of federal employees to voting and the private expression of views. Who was the Hatch Act designed to protect?
It was designed to protect workers from being forced to perform political work for their bosses.

8. Criticisms of the civil service system
Inflexible
Fails to reward merit
Fails to punish poor performance
Too difficult to transfer workers from agency to agency
What does the cartoonist think about government employees?

9. Senior executive service (SES)
In 1978, Congress and the president responded to complaints against the civil service system by establishing a Senior Executive Service (SES) composed of approximately 8,000 top civil servants who would be eligible for substantial merit bonuses but who could be transferred, demoted, or fired more easily than other federal employees.

10. Collective bargaining
Congress and the president have given federal employees limited rights to organize. Federal workers have the right to bargain collectively over a limited set of issues but not pay and benefits. Collective bargaining is a negotiation between an employer and a union representing employees over the terms and conditions of employment.

11. Democrats and Republicans
Democratic administrations have a positive relationship with federal worker unions. Clinton ordered agencies to develop partnership councils with employee unions.
Republican administrations have a hostile relationship with federal worker unions. They favor pay-for-performance and want to make it easier to fire employees for poor performance.
Republican members of Congress want to cut spending by reducing the pay and benefits of federal workers.

12. What You Have Learned
What is the size of the federal bureaucracy? Why does Professor Light think that the official number is misleading?
What was the spoils system? With which president is it most closely associated?
How did the Pendleton Act reform the spoils system?
What is the Hatch Act?
What are the major criticisms of the civil service system?
What is the senior executive service (SES)?