Civil-service protections that insulate agencies also breed timid rule-following bureaucrats

Evidence

On the other hand, there really does seem to be something about a bureaucracy that slows down its actions and toughens its outer skin. After all, the whole point of making agencies independent is to free them from short-​run political pressures and control. If we make jobs “civil-​service” jobs instead of patronage jobs, we loosen the grip of politicians and “special interests.” But this can work all too well. When we regularize promotion and tenure, when we make internal controls stronger than external controls, we run the risk of distorting the incentives of those who staff the bureaucracies. Individual crea­ tivity is discouraged and downgraded; outstanding performance becomes risky. Timid, bureaucratic minds dominate the agency. Those who stick to the rules and never get in trouble are rewarded. Policy change becomes almost impossible. — Lawrence M. Friedman and Grant M. Hayden, American Law, 616

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The double-edged logic — insulating agencies from politics is the same move that distorts incentives toward stasis — is a genuinely structural insight worth sitting with.
• XREF: connects to: Standing rules require a financial stake and gatekeep who may challenge agency action — Lawrence M. Friedman and Grant M. Hayden, American Law: An Introduction, 604; Political patronage threatened to erode civil service stability and guarantees; Bureaucracy shifts moral concern from targets onto superiors’ judgment — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 455

Broader Connections

• Bureaucracy shifts moral concern from targets onto superiors’ judgment #expands (0.75) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 455
• Political patronage threatened to erode civil service stability and guarantees #qualifies (0.72)