Why did Congress believe that the basic standards governing the management of the executive branch workforce should be included in statute? The Pendleton Act of replaced the political patronage system that had existed until that time with a merit-based system for filling most civil service positions. The drafters of the Civil Service Reform Act of believed that this merit-based system had broken down over the ensuing century.
Thus, they codified the merit principles and created a new agency, the Merit Systems Protection Board , as the "vigorous protector of the merit system. The Merit Systems Protection Board MSPB is empowered to hear and decide complaints for corrective or disciplinary action when an agency is alleged to have committed a prohibited personnel practice. It is a prohibited personnel practice to among other things take an action in violation of the Merit System Principles.
In addition, Merit System Principles are mirrored in the list of prohibited personnel practices. For example, Merit System Principle No. The MSPB also conducts studies of the civil service, and reports to the President and Congress on the extent to which the federal workforce is free of prohibited personnel practices. A recently released report, The Merit System Principles: Guiding the Fair and Effective Management of the Federal Workforce , summarizes how well Federal agencies are perceived to be supporting the MSPs; evaluates the extent and effectiveness of agency education on the MSPs; recommends steps to improve MSP education and adherence; and provides guidance and resources to facilitate greater understanding of the MSPs.
Can agency managers contact the Merit Systems Protection Board for advice on whether a particular planned action is consistent with the Merit System Principles or could be a Prohibited Personnel Practice? Post Office provided "that the Postmaster General, deputy postmasters, contractors f or carrying out the mail, and others employed under the aforesaid acts, shall continue to hold their several offices, appointments, and trusts, until they are otherwise removed.
However, the "decision of " discussed below provided congressional recognition at least for a time that the removal power was to be placed solely with the President, or by delegation to his Department heads. With specific reference to the Administrations of Washington 65 White.
Italics added. For the most part removals were occasioned for serious delinquency or for failure to account for public funds. However, after Adams became President, "he was urged at times to replace officials for party reasons and a few changes were made in which party differences played a part. Removal of Officials by the Presidents of the United States. American Historical Association, Annual Report, , 1, Jefferson found almost all the major offices and the majority of inferior positions as well filled with Federalists; he was later to remark, "Out of about six hundred officers named by the President there were six Republicans only when I came into office, and these were chiefly half-breeds.
A few months after assuming the Presidency, Jefferson indicated his apprehensions regarding this task: 73 Fish. The Civil Service and the Patronage, p. Federal ed. New fork, G. Putnam's Sons , X, pp. That the republicans would consent to a continuation of everything in federal hands, was not to be expected, because neither just nor politic.
On him, then, was to devolve the office of an executioner. While they acknowledged Jefferson's prerogative to appoint new Department heads, they contended that lower echelon civil servants "were beyond party bounds, servants of the nation, neutral in partisan debate, and deserving to be continued without interruption in their respective offices.
On this reliance he relinquishes his regular business. The Jefferson, p. The Commissions for some of these appointments were still in progress on the eve of the inauguration; from the perspective of the Federalists, in this way they could at least maintain control over one branch of the Federal government -- the judiciary. At the least the Federalists were hopeful that massive partisan removals by Jefferson would result in a public outcry, but in fact the opposite occurred.
As described by Van Riper, "Jefferson's mild operating maneuvers were hailed as only right and proper by most of his adherents, and the general public, then as now, found little of interest in the plight of a displaced civil servant, especially if he had been active in partisan politics. Shortly after entering the White House, he noted in a letter to James Monroe that "deprivations of office, if made on the ground of political principles alone, would revolt our new converts, and give a body to leaders who now stand alone.
Andrew A. Lipscomb and Albert Ellery Bergh, eds. Washington, Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association []. IX, p. Those by death are few, by resignation, none.
Can any other mode than that of removal be proposed? This is a painful office, but it is made my duty, and I meet it as such. It would have been to me a circumstance of great relief had I found a moderate participation of office in the hands of the majority. I would gladly have left to time and accident to raise them to their just share. But their total exclusion calls for prompter correctives. I shall correct the procedure; but that done, disdain to follow it, shall return with joy to that state of things, when the only questions concerning a candidate shall be.
Is he capable? Is he faithful to the Constitution? This netted only, a small group, mainly the "midnight appointments. Madison I Cranch, held that Jefferson had acted wrongly in making these removals, but due to other considerations the Court declined to issue a writ, and so Jefferson's appointees remained in office.
It is interesting to note that Jefferson followed this policy himself, and insofar as possible delayed filling any vacancies from December until March of , so that Madii;on might make the selections. According to Fish's tabulation, during the whole of Jefferson's Administration, he removed out of the total of presidential officers, but such figures underestimate the extent of the personnel turnover.
As Fish further pointed out, with respect to total removals by Jefferson; In estimating the severity of this first prescription, as of all later epochs of removal, it must always be remembered that if the lists of removals were made out on the basis of salary, or of the influence which the various offices carried with them, the proportion of changes would be very much greater. Among the removals are always found the collectors of the great cities, the postmasters, the great territorial and foreign officers, and, under Jefferson, the supervisors of the revenue.
These officers had subordinates under them and carried on minor proscriptions. It is difficult to secure information with regard to local and departmental removals at this period, there are no figures, and the policy was vacillating. Despite his ideal, to adopt a nonpartisan standard once an equilibrium was established, 88 he consistently selected Republicans to fill vacancies. But, as Leonard White has observed, "within the party circle.
Republican standards were high. Just as the social backgrounds of the first six Presidents were rather comparable, throughout the period from civil servants tended to come from the class of "gentlemen. The local residency rule for positions in the field was observed, and the equal distribution of offices among the States evolved into more specific apportionment criteria.
While the Federalists were initially concerned with "balancing" the areas represented by Department heads, the apportionment rule came to be applied informally but carefully to subordinate offices as well. As a result of this 9White. Its principal elements were virtue, 1earnin4 and wealth. The central theme was virtue, which was understood to connote justice, prudence, temnp erance, fortitude, courtesy, and liberality. The English gentlemen accepted an obligation to govern his country: the great aristocrats were occupied in the foreign service and the high offices of state the lesser gentrywere engaged in the conduct of local aft airs as justices ot the peace.
The Vrginia gentleman, of whom Washington and Jefferson were prototypes, recognized the same moral obligation. So that for all general offices persons to fill them must for some time be sought from other states, and only offices which are to be exercise 13 within the state i.
Jefferson carefully avoided any appearances of nepotism, as did his three successors, but was criticized for favoritism in a case or two, with respect to showing partiality to his personal friends. The Civil Service and the Patronage, pp. Italics added According to White, the "army medical corps was the first to develop a test system.
With respect to Federal civilian employment, "no one thought of a system of examinations. Individual applications, with letters of recommendation, and appointment on the basis of personal knowledge or confidence in testimonials were the order of the day.
Washington, Surgeon General's Of f. Under such conditions it is natural that the heads of departments should have played a more prominent part in the distribution of the patronage than ever before or since. The president attempted to avoid friction by giving to each head complete control of his own department. Although of the same party as his predecessors, he had a different political outlook, but refused to exploit the powers of removal and appointment for partisan purposes.
Madison's removals were almost entirely from among the ranks of revenue officers; about a third of Monroe's fell in this category, with removals of 10g consuls in the foreign service comprising almost another third. The second Fish.
Civil Service and the Patronage, p. As a result, Fish observed: Technically one must assign to Jefferson the introduction of the spoils system into the national service, for party service was recognized as a reason for appointment to office, and party dissent as a cause for removal.
It was not, however, the sole reason required; and. In what is apparently the first Memoirs of John Quincy Adams. Charles Frances Adams, ed. Philadelphia, J. Lippincott VI, PP. The Civil Service and the Patronage, P. This relative stability and continuity had various ramifications. On the one hand, employees were usually experienced, and agencies developed an esprit de corps with workers who had served together for years.
Since public retirement systems As cited in Rimensnyder, Nelson F. Hosenbloom, p. Congressional Actio," The Constitution gave the Senate a specified role in the appointment process for major Federal officers via the advice and consent" requirement for confirmation of the Presidential nominees.
As already noted, the practice quickly developed that Presidents consulted informally with Members off Congress concerning appointments, and especially with a State's delegation in regard to the filling of a local position.
As White stated, "Senators and to a 'lesser extent Representatives promptly began to interest themselves in appointments. By the end of [John] Adams' administration the convention had become well established that Congressmen were normally consulted concern-irg nominations to federal officee" In an insightful discussion focusing on the Federal service and Cong3ressionalPresidential relations, Herbert Kaufman has noted that aside -from the Coznstitutional provision for Senate confirmation and the usefulness of Congressmen as sources of information, practical political considerations mandated a role for the Congress in the formulation of recruitment policy.
For example, given the Constitutional framework of shared powers, the President needs Congressional support -- especially appropriations -to function as Chief Executive, and thus can "never afford to n6 White.
Particularly prior to the adoption of the Seventeenth Amendment and direct election of Senators, "without federal patronage, the ability of a candidate for the Senate to influence the action of the state legislators would have been seriously curtailed.
Ofte sometimes finds references to the "decision of 1T89" in discussions on recruitment policy. This first major controversy under the new framework involved the location of the removal power, not specifically mentioned in the Constitution. At issue was a proposal to create the Department of Foreign Affairs as the first Executive Department; among other things the bill provided that the President was to have sole removal power over the future Department head and by implication, over other Executive Branch officials as well.
A lengthy debate ensued in the House during which the following basic positions were advocated: 1. The pow-er to remove was part of the executive power granted to the president by the Constitution and therefore he could exercise it without the advice and consent of the Senate. The power to remove was connected to the power to appoint and therefore the Constitution required the Senate's concurrence. The only constitutional means of removal was impeachment.
The Constitution gave Congress the authority to decide where the removal power should be vested. Congress should vest it in the president alone. Congress should vest it in the president and the Senate. The ultimate approval "implied congressional endorsement of an almost unrestricted power of removal as a prerogative of the President.
While the House was debating a bill to levy an excise tax on distilled spirits, an amendment was proposed "to prevent inspectors, or any officers under them, from interfering, either directly or indirectly, in elections, further than giving their own votes, on penalty of forfeiting their offices.
See Rimensnyder, p. However, this debate presaged several contentions raised repeatedly in recent efforts to lift restrictions subsequently imposed on political activities of Federal employees. Racial discrimination in the Federal service likewise emerged during this era. In the Postmaster General had warned of the threat to internal security, were Negroes allowed to carry the mail, because they might thereby acquire subversive ideas and coordinate an uprising.
In Congress enacted a law 2 Stat. Perhaps the label of "first civil service reform effort" belongs with the activity of the House in relating to a proposed Constitutional amendment. Although the movement as a reform measure now appears "aimless and ineffective," its significance "lies in the fact the the object was not to secure a more effi cient civil service, but to guard against a political danger. In the 94th Congress H.
See discussion in following chapters. He further notes, "Although the statute applied only to postal employees, it is believed that there were no Negroes in the bureaucracy until when Ebenezer Basset became minister to Haiti. In the broader perspective this patronage threatened the separation of powers and tended to reduce the position of' Congress viz-a-viz the Executive. As Kaufman notes regarding this amendment attempt: The purpose was to prevent the President from subordinating Congress by rewarding submissive members with government jobs; members of Congress apparently prized such appointments, for Jefferson placed 20, Madison employed 29, and Adams complained that half of the legislators were seeking office for their relatives, the other half for themselves.
For a brief discussion of the origins of the caucuses and their role in the nominating process, see: David, Paul T. The Politics of National Party Conventions. Washington, Brookings Institution [ pp. The relatively greater salary of the higher Executive Branch positions at this time as compared with very low congressional compensation apparently provided the major lure. Several unsuccessful attempts to pass similarly worded amendments followed.
Another landmark congressional action in this early period was the passage of the Tenure of Office Act 3 Stat. As described by White: The act itself was brief. It provided that the principal officers concerned with the collection or disbursement of money should be henceforth appointed for fixed terms of four years, and that the commissions of present incumbents should expife at stated intervals, not later than September 30, The classes of agents affected were district attorneys, collectors of customs, naval officers and surveyors of the customs, navy agents, receivers of public money for lands, registers of the land offices, paymasters in the army, the apothecary general, the assistant apothecaries general, and the commissary general of purchases.
Not affected were pursers, Indian agents, postmasters, or any of the accounting and clerical officers and employees stationed in Washington.
For the full discussion, see: Annals of Congress, 2nd Cong. Some of these efforts are discussed below. The Jeffersonians, P. However, interpretation of Crawford's motives vary.
So the advocates of the legislation advanced an attractive rationale: Ostensibly, the purpose of the act was to compel a regular submission of accounts, at the end of each term of office, from officials handling public funds. Supporters of the law claimed that most officials would be reappointed, but that a convenient means would also be provided for removing, by failure to reappoint, unsatisfactory officials without damaging their reputations. The jeffersonians, P. For a more detailed discussion of the circumstances surrounding the passage of this act, see: Fish.
Instead of holding office indefinitely during good behavior, Federal workers in the categories specified subsequently were to have four year terms, although reappointment was permissible. Rosenbloom has stressed the importance of the law because "it confirmed the absence of a legal right to office and encouraged the adoption of the spoils system. Monroe unwarily signed the bill without advertising to its real character.
He told me that Mr. Madison considered it as in principle unconstitutional. Monroe himself inclined to the same opinion, but the question had not occurred to him when he signed the bill. This must have been one of the midnight signatures of the President, when he had not time to consider, or even read the law.
Memoirs, VII, pp. Works Federal ed. Particularly for Adams, this position was a matter of principle; he said, "I determined to renominate every person against whom there was no complaint 14o which would have warranted his removal The implications of the Tenure of Office Act for Congressional-Executive Branch relations should also be mentioned; according to White this legislation "was a powerful engine in the development of congressional influence in appointments.
Nathaniel Macon, previously the leader of the amendment effort, again raised the matter of recruitment to the Federal service, and a Senate Select Committee to "inquire into the expediency of reducing the Patronage of the Executive Government of the United States" was created.
According to White, the 14o Adams. Memoirs, VI, P. Committee on Executive Patronage. Inquiry into the expediency of reducing the Patronage of the Executive Government of the United States. Washington, Duff Green [ As characterized by Fish: It is significant that the committee did not show itself eager to reduce the amount of patronage, but only to shift the control..
It is evident that the ultimate object of the reformers was still not so much to improve the service as to reduce the power of the president, which they rightly judged was liable to great extension. T he design was to divide the patronage between the executive and legislative departments. This was the first distinctly aggressive act on the part of the Senate in the great struggle between that body and the president for the control of the patronage.
The bills eventually were all tabled by Macon himself, because of his poor health and resulting inability to assume the necessary leadership to guide them through the legislative process.
But perhaps the greatest significance of the BentonReport in the long run related more to elections than to appointments. Conclusion As was noted at the outset of this chapter, there has been in the past a tendency to idealize the early period in the development of the American public service. Consequently, the attempt here was to emphasize the point, noted in recent historical works, that our early politicians were realists and the relevance of office to action and to political power was well understood.
But while it is necessary to deflate the exaggerations, it is likewise apropos to acknowledge the positive features of the record from On the whole, the Federal civil servants during this period were honest and capable.
Washington's "fitness" test was adopted with minor variations by the next five Presidents as well, as was reflected in the caliber of the persons recruited.
As characterized by Van Riper, "During the formative years of the American national government, its public service was one of the most competent in the vorld. Certainly it was one of the freest from corruption.
As White has observed with regard to these initial exams for the medical services in the military, and for entrance to the military academies: "The examinations were taken seriously, and represented the first effort to establish formal standards of competence and character in government circles.
Aside from Jefferson's brief "transition" period and in spite of the Tenure of Office Act in , most Federal workers in practice enjoyed tenure during good behavior. In fact, the absence of arbitrary removals was frequently carried to the extreme of absence of any involuntary removals, which led to problems of stagnation and superannuation. Still, with respect to relative competence and stability, the service of this era would measure up fairly well in comparison with merit system standards.
Equality of opportunity was far from realization. Aside from overt racial-discrimination, there were scattered instances of nepotism and personal favoritism. And from the broad perspective, recruitment tended to be limited to the upper sociooreconomic strata, from the "gentleman" class, as already described. The merit principle of political neutrality, while an overt aspiration, was only imperfectly attained. As the preceding survey of recruitment practices illustrated, partisanship, at least to the extent of having the correct party sympathies, became a virtual prerequisite for appointment to major offices and of increasing importance fcr minor offices as well.
In conclusion, fundamental trends which became accentuated in subsequent years were already emerging in this early period of civil service history. Kaufman has suggested that basic trends were already visible by the end of Washington's Administration: Civil service reformers of a later generation, looking back on Washington's term of office, tended to depict him as a man untouched by the forces of politics in his management of the public service.
It is beyond question Ibid. But the tendencies that were to become sources of great controversy many years later were already in evidence. The partisan considerations, the preferments for veterans, the maintenance of territorial representativeness overriding questions of merit , the battles between the legislative and executive branches of the government -all these made their appearance at the very beginning.
They were not abused as some of them one day would be, but they were not absent by any means. Austin, Texas, University of Texas Press [ p. VM: db; gn; do; ga. The general characterization of this era is usually a-long the lines of "period of unmitigated spoils.
The presidential election became a quadrennial 'event,' with the civil service as the prize. Leonard White, in his administrative history covering this period, has suggested that there were actually two personnel systems in operation for the Federal civil service: "1one sector partisan, rotating in personnel; the other based in part on examinations and in part on custom, neutral and permanent. But it is useful tahl, 0. New York, Russel and Russell [; originally published h] p.
The Jacksonians. New York, Macmillan Company [ Before turning to a consideration of the spoils system in operation during this period, as reflected in the practices pursued by the respective Administrations, we again commence with a consideration of background factors. The third section then contains a survey of oversight activities with respect to the Federal employees by the Congress and nascent efforts at reform during this period, followed by a brief concluding passage.
The Setting and Other Background Factors Although Andrew Jackson has become popularly associated with the founding of the spoils system, various commentaries emphasize that in fact President Jackson "did not originate either of the two major aspects of the spoils system: the application of the 'rotation theory' to appointive officers or the use of patronage for practical political advantage. It is for introducing it to the national government on a wider scale thax any of his predecessors, and for carrying it out openly -- indeed, proudly -- rather than apologetically and quietly as had been the fashion earlier.
By this behavior, he set loose forces that for more than half a century dominated the American national political scene. And specifically in terms of the American experience, the spoils system had already emerged at the State level.
Fish noted that in the period from , the tendencies that "burst suddenly and violently into national politics" had gradually appeared at the State level, particularly in New York and Pennsylvania: "first, the custom of using the public offices openly and continuously as ammunition in party warfare; second, the evolution of the idea of rotation in office. Originally the theory related only to elected officials.
The rationale was that fixed, relatively short terms would lead to rotation of officeholders, thereby providing for widespread education in. While the educational motif was retained, the emphasis shifted from widespread citizenship education to education of government officials, by requiring them to retire periodically and thus to allow fresh personnel, assumedly more in touch with the common folk, to serve.
For a survey of the situation in the respective states, see ibid. See ibid. Particularly significant were the expansion of the suffrage and the increasing importance of political parties to organize the voters. As White explained: The most important influence upon the administrative system during the years from Jackson to Lincoln was the wide enfranehisement of adult male citizens and their organization into a national party system, accompanied by a surge of democratic sentiment that fanned an already active desire for office.
By the 's the movement for universal manhood suffrage had run its course. A new political force was thus introduced and a novel practical party obligation -- the task of organizing a mass electorate and directing it toward the polls with correct ideas at the recurring crises of state and national election.
This proved to be a task of great magnitude and difficulty, characteristics which fostered the rapid growth of party machines, unparalleled party activity, and a type of practical party politician that, although not hitherto unknDwn,,seemed now ubiquitous. It also proved to be a task requiring large resources for the payment of party workers, and for the first time raised the problem of the proper sources of party funds.
This was the practice in ancient Athens, and, to a very great extent, in the early New England townships, in the Dutch government of New York, and in Pennsylvania urder William Penn's charter. The advocates of the theory disregarded the fact that there are, in proportion to population, many fewer offices in the Federal service thar. No matter how frequently positions are vacated, it never is possible for everyone to have his turn.
This became so apparent that the theory was changed to accord more nearly with the facts. It was declared that being out of office gave the politicians a chance to learn the problems of the people.
Most used their enforced leisure not to discover what the people wanted, but to search for what they wanted -- another job. The Jacksonians, pp. In this context the function of the spoils system "becomes evident; the civil service becomes the pay-roll of the party leader; offices are a:-portioned according to the rank and merits of his subordinates, and, if duties are too heavy or new positions are needed, new offices may be created. One writer, noting that the development of the spoils system was dependent "upon the nature of civil service tasks," provided this overview: During the period in which the spoils system reached the peak, of its importance, government was predominantly laissez-faire, -public policy was distributional, and as Jackson indicated, for the most part the tasks of the civil service were relatively plain and simple.
By technological advances had done little to alter the office skills of However, in those parts of the civil service in which technical knowle f e and skills were required the spoils system was less significant. Federal Service and the Constitution. The factor of alternation in party control of the Presidency during this era is considered in greater detail below. Population had grown and wealth increased. Administration of new territories, sale of public lands, handling the Indian problem; the custody and expenditure of revenues; expert appraisal for customs duties of the great variety of goods imported from Europe; granting of patents, requiring thorough knowledge of both the law and numerous sciences involved; designing and minting of coins; the beginning of scientific research in agriculture; all these and a multitude of others were functions of the Federal Government in Jackson's Administrations which required employees both trained and experienced.
The increasing size of the Federal service, combined with the effects of rotationin-office and patronage practices dual components of the spoils system served to alter the dividing line between "politics" and "administration" within the Executive Branch.
As White has correctly noted, democratic government requires a blending of these factors and cooperation between the respective personnel.
In the early years this presented little problem for the functioning of the Federal service; since both political and administrative officials tended to be drawn from the same social group of gentlemen, cooperation came naturally. White offered this discussionofl-the initial practice and of changes after Where to draw the line between the two sectors of the public service had never been precisely defined, and fluctuated from time to time.
From the political sector comprised hardly more than the four department heads: State, Treasury, War, and Navy. The Post Office was politically neutral, the chief accounting 13U.
History of the Federal Civil Service, Typed report [ p. After the line was drawn differently, although the change was not abrupt.
Heads of departments became more obviously political personalities, in the sense of participating actively in elections. The commissioners in charge of a number of important offices were more frequently chosen on the basis of political considerations. The Report drew a distinction between policy-level or political Executive Branch officials and "mere ministerial" officers. White observed regarding therlevant passage in this Report: The former [policy-level officers] were described as those who stood in the confidential relation of advisers to the President, who 'under the laws, have a discretion which may be employed to aid or to defeat the political policy of an administration.
The appraisal requirements established in law and regulation for all employees create the foundation for that accountability. Employees must be told what is expected, be given an opportunity to perform, be appraised periodically and be held accountable when they fail to perform. Presuming performance to be adequate is inconsistent with the notion of vigilant attention to assuring merit among the workforce.
A merit system's underlying values include a strong sense of fairness. That sense of fairness is realized not only through due process protections and open competition, but also by establishing that better performance deserves greater reward and recognition. Agencies can use their broad, deregulated incentive awards authorities to establish a wide variety of incentive and recognition programs.
When rewards are to be distributed, a merit system calls for differences in performance to be the basis for making reward distinctions, rather than other non-merit factors. The themes of performance management pervade all good management practices. The most basic foundation for good management practice and accountability in the Federal Government its — merit system — reinforces and sets standards for the effective use of performance management processes. As agencies examine their values and practices to determine how well they have realized merit system principles, they will need to include a thorough look at how well the performance management processes are carried out.
Office of Personnel Management. Close Menu. Policy, Data, Oversight Performance Management Merit System Principles and Performance Management A common conception of the Federal Government's merit system principles is that they are designed to ensure fair and open recruitment and competition and employment practices free of political influence or other nonmerit factors.
In fact, the Civil Service Reform Act of , which incorporated the merit system principles into the law at section of title 5, United States Code, stated as national policy that Merit System Principles With the deregulation of performance appraisal and awards, agencies have been given authority and freedom to manage performance effectively.
Concern for the Public Interest Planning and establishing clear performance goals is a fundamental performance management process for managers and employees.
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