‘The Minister Wants it’: Self-Politicisation and Proxy Politics among Senior Civil Servants

Dorp, Erik-Jan van

doi:10.1177/09520767221078093

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 49 publications

(79 reference statements)

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“…Discretion is often studied from a street-level bureaucracy perspective but may also apply to public managers and their leadership. This might create tensions in contexts with higher politicization, and relatedly more formalization and centralization, and leadership and organizational practices in public organizations (Backhaus et al, 2022; Fuenzalida & Riccucci, 2019; Van Dorp, 2022), which can be studied in future research.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unraveling Determinants of Inclusive Leadership in Public Organizations

Ashikali

2023

Public Personnel Management

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The aim of this article is to unravel the determinants of inclusive leadership by combining mixed methods in two phases to explore and test theoretically grounded personal and organizational antecedents of inclusive leadership. The first qualitative phase used semi-structured interviews with public managers, while the second quantitative phase tested assumptions using survey data from employees working in the Dutch public sector. The findings support the hypothesized positive association of leader humility as well as a flexible culture on inclusive leadership. Public managers also tend to have, both social justice and business case arguments for diversity, affecting their inclusive leadership. Motivation and discretionary room enable public managers to cope with structural constrains. Top management support is important to change organizational culture and norms, motivating and stimulating lower level managers to actively show inclusive leadership. Overall, our findings contribute to a better understanding of inclusive leadership in a public sector context.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unraveling Determinants of Inclusive Leadership in Public Organizations

Ashikali

2023

Public Personnel Management

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“…Other studies have found examples of recent (Heintzman, 2016) and past senior public servants (Bourgault, 2021;Hubbard and Paquet, 2008;van Dorp, 2022) displaying a resilient enthusiasm to deliver the government's agenda. However, these concern public servants' behaviour behind-the-scenes and do not provide evidence of publicly promoting and defending the government's reputation.…”

Section: The Detriment Of Bureaucratic Impartialitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Promiscuously partisan public servants? Publicly defending and promoting the government’s reputation to the detriment of bureaucratic impartiality and truthfulness

Cooper

2023

IJPL

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PurposeFor many, the claim that a new approach to bureaucracy—new political governance (NPG)—is underway reads as if it was written by Stephen King: Frightening fiction. While the thought of promiscuously partisan senior public servants publicly defending and promoting the government’s reputation to the demise of impartiality is disturbing, the evidentiary record has led most to dismiss the idea as empirically false. This article questions, and empirically investigates, whether dismissing the idea of promiscuous partisanship has been premature.Design/methodology/approachA case study of the loyalty displayed by Canada’s most senior public servant during a highly publicized parliamentary committee is analysed with a novel theoretical and empirical approach in three steps. First, the Clerk of the Privy Council (Clerk)’s committee testimony is analysed against analytical constructs of impartial and promiscuous partisan loyalty that focuses on the testimony’s direction and substance. Second, the objectivity and truthfulness of the testimony is analysed by comparing what was publicly claimed to have occurred against evidence submitted to the committee that provids an independent record of events. Third, the perception the Clerk’s testimony had on some committee members, political journalists and members of the public is analysed through print media and committee Hansard.FindingsWhile the Clerk’s testimony displays an awareness of upholding impartiality, it also comprises promiscuous partisanship. Throughout his testimony, the Clerk redirects from the line of questioning to defend and promote the sitting government’s reputation. Moreover, to defend and promote the government’s reputation the Clerk’s testimony moved away from objectivity and engaged in truth-obfuscating tactics. Finally, the nature of the Clerk’s testimony was perceived by some committee members and the public—including former senior public servants—as having abandoned impartiality to have become a public “cheerleader” of the government.Research limitations/implicationsEmploying an in-depth case study limits the extent to which the findings concerning the presence of promiscuously partisan loyalty can be generalized beyond the present case to the larger cadre of senior public servants.Originality/valueEmpirically, while most research has dismissed claims of promiscuous partisanship as empirically unfounded, this article provides what is possibly the strongest empirical case to date of a public incident of promiscuous partisanship at the apex of the bureaucracy. As such, scholars can no longer dismiss NPG as an interesting idea without much empirical leverage. Theoretically, this article adds further caution to Aucoin’s original narrative of NPG by suggesting that promiscuous partisanship might not only involve senior public servants defending and promoting the government, but that doing so may push them to engage in truth-obfuscating tactics, and therein, weaken the public’s confidence in political institutions. The novel theoretical and empirical approach to studying senior public servants’ parliamentary testimony can be used by scholars in other settings to expand the empirical study of bureaucratic loyalty.

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“…Relatedly, the bureaucracy itself may become politically sensitized and actively engaged in providing political advice. The most distinctive feature of this "functional" politicization is its endogenous nature: it "bubbles up from within the civil service" (Shaw & Eichbaum, 2020, p. 843; see also Hustedt & Salomonsen, 2014;Van Dorp, 2022) because it is civil servants themselves who change their behavior. However, Salomonsen et al (2016) note that some became engaged in strategic political communication due to their awareness of increased mediatization rather than being prompted by political staff.…”

Section: Rethinking Politicization Settingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparing ministerial advisers across politicization settings: Still hiding in the shadows?

Staroňová

Rybář

2023

Governance

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The article examines the proposition that the characteristics of ministerial advisers are shaped by specific settings of the politicization of ministerial administration. Four types of politicization settings are identified, resulting from variation in the scope of formal political appointments and appointments into bureaucracy. Using data from an original expert survey and semi‐structured expert interviews, the contribution analyses eleven cases from Central and Eastern Europe. It documents that the functional differentiation of advisers from other administrative actors, and their political and policymaking roles, are conditioned by the politicization settings in which they operate. The political roles of advisers are most pronounced where they do not face other formal political appointees, and appointments into bureaucracy are low. Policymaking roles are strongest where formal political appointees manage high politics, and bureaucratic appointments are limited. The article also identifies “invisible” advisers as a new type of player unknown in established Western bureaucracies.

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‘The Minister Wants it’: Self-Politicisation and Proxy Politics among Senior Civil Servants

Cited by 5 publications

References 49 publications

Unraveling Determinants of Inclusive Leadership in Public Organizations

Unraveling Determinants of Inclusive Leadership in Public Organizations

Promiscuously partisan public servants? Publicly defending and promoting the government’s reputation to the detriment of bureaucratic impartiality and truthfulness

Comparing ministerial advisers across politicization settings: Still hiding in the shadows?

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