Books in Review
SPERO, STERLING D.
Books in Review Problem of Responsible Bureaucracy Review By STERLING D. SPERO BIG DEMOCRACY: By Paul H. Appleby. Alfred A. Knopf, New York, IMS. REPRESENTATIVE BUREAUCRACY —An Interpretation...
...Kingsley suggests as one of the means of achieving the desired end in Britain', the direct participation of organised social groups in the' administrative process...
...He usee words like "crenelated," "asphodel," "cocotrice" (my dictionary says "cockatrice",, and one runs 'to the source to see If these are-truly words, even .as the Royal Physician himself questions: "Obllferant," he repeated, frowning, "/*' there such a word...
...In France, reactionary officials sabotaged the Blum government...
...By Jam** Thurber...
...The Thurber drawings and the Don Freeman illustrations dress up an already welcome addition to tiie Thurber collection...
...Appleby's book is net intended, as Kingsley's book is, to be a study of the civil service...
...As for instance: "Give the red parchment to the man In white, the blue parchment to the man in red, and the white parchment to the man in blue," be said...
...But considerably more than half the book is devoted to analysis of the role of the civil service in carrying out these tasks...
...The White Deer Is a tale of an enchanted forest, a mighty monarch named Clode, and his three sons—Thag, Callow and Jorn—all of whom are enamored of a Princess who has been transformed from a White Deer...
...His . short-lived csreer as a Libersl M.P., snd his defeat in the lsst election is s matter of recent history...
...It is rather a discussion of the tssks which "Big Democracy'' will face In coming years...
...similar to a deer who on a previous occasion, by virtus of having ssved a woods wizard, was given the power of chsnging to a beautiful princess to be spared from sttack by hard-pressed hunters...
...Yet, on her sixth birthday I had given her the ssme author's Many Moon*, and she enjoyed It...
...Postwar Social Security Re view by MARK STARR BRITISH LABOR AND THE BEV-ERIDGE PLAN...
...They recognise the feet that thie extension creates problems and that one of these problems is the development of sn efficient and responsive body of public employees which will be able to translate the public will into public policy and action...
...Political endorsement" ssys the author, "is, of course, no guarantee of the suitability of an applicant for a place on one of these new agencies...
...It gives the story of the economic repercussions in that country of the world-wide financial earthquake, which, in the three years between 1930 and 1882, waa followed by more than thirty revolutions in Latin America and fourteen ia' Chile alone...
...Tra-- ditional civil service recruitment methods do not affectively identify such per sons...
...Democracy's problem today is to maintain the representative character of the bureaucracy...
...Hareoint, Brae* and Co...
...Another means is the democratization of British secondsry and higher education which...
...It is tragic that while Sidney Webb gave Beveridge his first big chance as a civil servant in the field of social security, and Arthur Greenwood appointed him to tbe commission which made his nsme world-famous, it was the sweeping success of tbe Labor Party which ended so abruptly the...
...This la musk more valuable than the infantile chatter about Sir William Beveridge as a personality which bos been supplied in such great quantity to the American public...
...So, to investigate, I read it myself—in two sittings—and was thoroughly repaid for the little effort...
...READING The White Deer was at much a dare as a desire...
...New agencies require staffing by employees who are genuinely zealous with respect to the new program...
...The British civil service, or bureaucracy as it hss become fashionable to call it, has up to the present been truly represent-stivs of the basic purposes of the state...
...The organization of the service as part of the genersl labor movement is still another...
...REPRESENTATIVE BUREAUCRACY —An Interpretation of the Brituh Civil Service...
...One of the most apparent of these, is the creation of a vaat body ef civil servants (bureaucrats), in whom a large measure of administrative discretion affecting private individuals and enterprises must be vested...
...says Kingsley, "the undoubted dependence of the minister upon his officials might become e matter of grave constitutional importance...
...parliamentary career of Sir William, Bernard Shaw said it served him right for acting as a Socialist but repudiating the name...
...115 pages, tz.50...
...authority over increasing areas of social life...
...1.00...
...Able men," he says, "will * be impartial only in respect to trifles...
...ThKRK has been a large crop of books published during the past two years deal uiK with that political phenomon callod bureaucracy...
...Or, take the constant personal conflict of the Royal Physician who tries to be both doctor and patient to himself...
...The selection, training, organisation and functioning of the civil service and its relation to the policy determining organs of the State, are matters of msjor political significance...
...This challenge to the doctrine of Civil .Service neutrality is echoed by Kingsley -in his excellent work on the British Civil Service...
...A civil servant is expected to serve the government qf whatever party happens to be in power with equal loyalty and efficiency...
...now is largely a privilege of the well-to-do...
...The service was drswn from this ssme clsss snd its basic at t i tudes were fundamentally the same ss those of the ministers, whether Libersl or Conservative...
...the day...
...Why should this be different...
...ThIS is sn excellent survey, not only of* the technical provisions of the Bev-eridge Plan for improved social security, but also an analysis of the social forces which produced It, the differences ia opinion about some of its provisions (for exsmple, children's allowances^, aad an estimate of tbe forcee which will apply It in postwar Britain...
...Neither is intelligence...
...Aad it is a mighty tad moment, indeed...
...Neither Is honesty...
...The civil service has already become the central organ of the modern stste...
...And the hesvens be, praised, I hope she enjoys it hslf as much ss I do...
...This book is a necessary aid to the Beveridge pamphlets of the Public Affairs Committee and should be read as a supplement to Beveridge's own books now published in this country...
...Fairy Tate Time for Adults . Review by CLAIM GROSNER THE WHITE DEER...
...Appleby proposes deliberate modification of the traditional merit system of selecting personnel by competitive examination to the extent at leaat, that new governmental agencies be set up on "a somewhat flexible and political basis and be converted later into career bodies subject to civil service pro' cedures...
...We cannot slavishly imitate the British proposals, but their details and particularly ' the struggle over theth msy be richly suggestive to our own activity ia this field...
...Chilean Economy Review by STEPHEN NAfl THOUGH this little volume could by no means be described as exciting reeding for the layman, it is a very competent and lucid analysis of the economic development snd progress of Chile in the fourteen years since 1929, the year of the groat financial collapse which spread from Wall Street ell over the globe...
...But the constant, ever-present Thurber humor snd irony quickly make up for any temporary feeling of sadness one msy have...
...The problems of the independence of the judicisry snd the supremacy of the legislature were solved by esrlier generations...
...I wanted the book for a child of seven and was cab-tioned thst "this was no book for her...
...Bu J. Donald Ktngelcy...
...Appleby would give Congressmen a recognized role if) the nomination of candidates te certain specified positions, The Civil Service Commission wouid continue to set standards and the operating agency would make the ultimate selection...
...Ain't it now...
...The system has worked well in Britain up to the present time because the ssme clsss remained in power despite changes in party politics...
...A very good index and comprehensive tables and charts contribute greatly to the usefulness of this book...
...It's a gem, believe me, with lots of fun,, pungent humor and 'poetry, and plenty of fairy tale ppthos...
...Iihnd Press, 1943...
...Their attack has been leveled not directly against the expansion of governmental functions,, hut against tame of its inevitable accompaniments...
...Illuttratrd by the author and Don Freeman...
...Under different circumstances...
...The proposals of Appleby point some of the way for America, where, in view of our traditions, the problem is perhaps less formidable thsn in England with its established administrative class...
...The book also contains useful information about Chilean labor legislstion and social security...
...All this within the framework of constitutional liberal regimes and without totalitarian or dictatorial interference in the political life of the country...
...Yet each of these things la a factor, and I see no reason that warrants ruling out the political factor in the case of a program1 which is the political easense of the time...
...Early in the book, it is fatefully probable that the Princess is actually a White Deer...
...Obviously, the problem lends itself to no pst snd simple solution, but if the modern rspidly expanding state is to remain democratic, ways must be found to insure the representative character of the officials designated te effect the people's will...
...It is a charming, delightful, delectable bit of fantasy and nonsense, as only Thurber can do It...
...It's 1ms simple that wsy for everybody...
...The current struggle in the United States over the Wagner-Murray-Dingell Bill aids importance to this hook...
...The differences between the parties were slight and it was therefore not difficult for the civil servant to bridge such differences ss did exist between the old regime snd the new...
...It tells how Chile, after losing her markets for ber.msin products, nitrate and copper, the basis of her economy, and passing through disastrous periods of bankrutpcy, unemployment, inflation, and default of her loans, finally succeeded, with the help of government stimulation of domestic industries and other economic developments, in pulling herself out of the mire of depression by her own boot straps...
...Adequate selection is much more complex than that, particularly for the new agencies through which an administration is trying to satisfy the popular demand that brought it into office...
...The Antioch Pre**, Yellow Springe, Ohio, 1944...
...Will a British regime whose policies differ greatly from those of the old parties which have had a monopoly of power for generations, be able to rely on the loyalty and efficiency of the civil service...
...The doctrine grew out of tlje necessities of Parliamentary government, where theoretically administrations may change quickly and where, therefore, reliable permanent officials must be at hand to carry out the popular will expressed by the government of...
...By Frederick Jo-tiph Scheu...
...The authors of the works under review assure the inevitability of the extension of governments...
...Neither Is a pleasing personality...
...Naturally, some of the details hsve been slresdy made out of date because it ia no longer true that Sir William Beveridge has "never stood for Parliament and never associated himself with any political movement...
...they will not remsin indifferent when confronted with mstters of real impor-tance...
...Yes, I'm giving tbe book to the child of seven...
...These works have for the most part been polemics against the expanding power of the modern state...
...Chile is in fact one of the most liberal and politically most progressive Countries of this hemisphere...
...In Weimar, Germany, the author points out, the attempt made to impose parliamentary control upon a civil service but partially committed to the ends the Republic sought to pursue, failed disastrously...
...The institution of the permanent Civil Service in Great Britain, in Europe and in this country, is founded on the principle of political neutrality...
Vol. 28 • November 1945 • No. 46
