Civil service

The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil service personnel hired rather than elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leadership. A civil service official, also known as a public servant or public employee, is a person employed in the public sector by a government department or agency for public sector undertakings. Civil servants work for central and local governments, and answer to the government, not a political party.

The extent of civil servants of a state as part of the "civil service" varies from country to country. In the United Kingdom (UK), for instance, only Crown (national government) employees are referred to as "civil servants" whereas employees of local authorities (counties, cities and similar administrations) are generally referred to as "local government officers", who are considered public servants but not civil servants. Thus, in the UK, a civil servant is a public servant but a public servant is not necessarily a civil servant.

The study of the civil service is a part of the field of public service (and in some countries there is no distinction between the two). Staff members in "non-departmental public bodies" (sometimes called "QUANGOs") may also be classed as civil servants for the purpose of statistics and possibly for their terms and conditions. Collectively a state's civil servants form its civil service or public service. The concept arose in China and modern civil service developed in Britain in the 18th century.

An international civil servant or international staff member is a civilian employee who is employed by an intergovernmental organization. These international civil servants do not resort under any national legislation (from which they have immunity of jurisdiction) but are governed by internal staff regulations. All disputes related to international civil service are brought before special tribunals created by these international organizations such as, for instance, the Administrative Tribunal of the ILO. Specific referral can be made to the International Civil Service Commission (ICSC) of the United Nations, an independent expert body established by the United Nations General Assembly. Its mandate is to regulate and coordinate the conditions of service of staff in the United Nations common system, while promoting and maintaining high standards in the international civil service.

Under the Zhou, official posts were provided to the aristocracy of the imperial and state clans and dispensed at their patronage. The Warring States and Qin Empire gradually replacing the varied ancient states with fairly standardized counties and disempowered much of the aristocracy in favor of officials appointed by the central governments, the early beginnings of the modern meritocratic civil service.

The Han initially maintained dozens of allied kingdoms, restored parts of the earlier aristocracy, and only directly staffed the commanderies around Chang'an in the west, but this system was quickly ended after widespread revolts and even defections to the Xiongnu. By 134 BC during the reign of the Wu Emperor, the bureaucracy was so widespread and needful of reliable manpower that the xiaolian system was instituted. Each commandery head was made responsible for nominating talented candidates, vouching—and becoming personally liable—for their unswerving filial piety (i.e. loyalty) and incorruptibility. Eventually public schools were provided for this purpose: the Imperial University under the Wu Emperor and local academies under the Ping Emperor in AD 3. Efforts were made to base appointments—especially in the military—solely on merit, but personal relationships continued to play a major role, particularly for the highest offices such as chancellor.

This tendency was only strengthened by the nine-rank system instituted by Cao Wei during the Three Kingdoms Period and continued under the Jin dynasty. Nominations were graded by an established rubric and overseen by professional controllers. In practice, points allocated on subjective criteria and those awarded for familial ties to earlier administrators entrenched a hereditary ruling class.

The civil service developed further with the imperial examination founded under the Sui. The imperial exam based on merit was designed under the Wen Emperor to select the best administrative officials for the state's bureaucracy. Despite the resumption of recommended candidates under the Yang Emperor, this system had a huge influence on both society and culture in Imperial China and was directly responsible for the creation of a class of scholar-bureaucrats who notionally held high rank for their personal merit regardless of their family pedigree. The succeeding Tang dynasty—particularly during the interregnum of the empress Wu Zetian's Zhou dynasty—expanded the exams' format and their importance. The system reached its apogee during the Song dynasty.