The history of the US Civil Service and the subsequent development of the merit system comprise many interesting "chapters" in the development of our nation. The most important milestone legislative act leading to the development of the merit system principles was the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978.

At the height of the "spoils era" (1829-1883), each change in national administration was the signal for the general removal of Government employees to provide jobs for the supporters of the new President, members of his party and party leaders, and sometimes for the leaders of a faction within the party. The struggles for jobs caused much bitterness and jobs were openly bought and sold. Incompetence, corruption, and outright theft were common.

In 1881, President James A Garfield was assassinated by a disgruntled job seeker while waiting to board a v

Even those civil service workers who were specifically targeted under CSRA have mixed reactions to its implementation. According to one study, workers affected by the SES provisions of the Act are likely to be supportive overall of CSRA, but are not more favorably disposed to the Act than colleagues who are not affected. Among senior civil service workers, the Act is perceived as having had a positive effect on the civil service, but less of an effect than originally anticipated (Daley, 1995, p. 359).

It is worth noting that CSRA was passed under a Democratic administration (Carter), but was largely implemented and shaped by Republican administrations (Reagan and Bush). Calls for reform have been heard most recently under a Democratic administration once again. It is impossible to determine what the effects of the Act would have been if implementation had occurred under the leadership of a Democratic administration, but the Act would probably have taken a different form than it did. While some of the goals of CSRA, such as eliminating poor performers and linking pay and performance, appeal to both Democrats and Republicans, it must be assumed that the influence of Republican administrations led to different results than a Democratic administration would have produced.

While the CSRA introduced a number of reforms to the civil service employment process, other areas, such as the job classification program, remained essentially untouched. Among the changes that CSRA brought was the establishment of a merit pay system which was designed to mirror the pay-for-performance standards in private industry. There are inherent problems with such a program since private industry has proven standards (often tied to financial performance) by which employees can be judged. In one instance in the federal government (the Internal Revenue Service), the idea that employees are evaluated based on the revenue they are able to generate actually has a negative effect on the public and the way it perceives the civil service (Caplin, 1997, p. 245). Nonetheless, CSRA established the Merit System Protection Board (MSPB). The MSPB introduced reforms designed to facilitate the termination of poorly performing employees, defined merit principles (those which the MSPB is supposed to oversee) and established collective bargaining rights for employee unions within the civil service (Holmes, 1995, p. 1). This was designed to improve the overall performance of the civil service.

acation train in Washington's old Baltimore and Potomac railroad station. Garfield's death gave new impetus to a Civil Service reform bill introduced six months earlier by Senator George Pendleton of Ohio and other powerful proponents of the merit system. Passed in 1883, this Act established procedures to assure that selections for certain Federal jobs would be open, competitive, and free of political coercion. Then, in the 1930's, the Social Security Administration required states that received Federal grants to meet certain merit standards in their employment practices.

Some topics in this essay:
Civil Service, Murphy’s Law, MSPB MSPB, Personnel Manual, President Eisenhower, Pendleton Act, Conclusion CSRA, Reform Act, CSC CSC, Personnel Management, civil service, federal government, merit system, human resource, service reform, civil service reform, civil service commission, service commission, democratic administration, personnel management, holmes 1995 1, private industry, holmes 1995, merit system principles, protection board mspb,