The 'Image of the Unsatisfactory Bureaucrat' portrays a mischief as socially and culturally uniform. It gives the impression that the inconveniences, nuisances or frustrations in dealing with State agencies would have a one-cause explanation, i.e., traits of personality or conduct of the...

It is useful to acknowledge at least four facets of bureaucracy. And bureaucratic management has a few general characteristics, such as professionalism of the officers, organizational subdivision and a complex system of registers. Administrative procedures aim at effectiveness by applying the...

To shape or to choose an appropriate regime of civil service is an old problem. The modern State in the West adopted two regimes in its first experience, the sale of public offices and favoritism. History and situational-strategic analysis derive lessons from that experience. In the first...

The history of the DASP (now extinct) and of the civil service reform in the 1930s shows that as a matter of fact the supposed merit system lacked strength. That is, a large share of the civil servants kept being selected by means of favoritism. Afterwards, in the years up to 1988, favoritism...

The word "efficiency" has several technical meanings. Some of them are confused with productivity, with economies of scale and with optimization. There are also some lay meanings which are vague enough; they allude to effectiveness, to competence, to adequacy, to doing something well, and to...