UPSC IAS exam preparation - India's Constitution - Lecture 12

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Administrative systems of the world - Part 1

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1.0 INTRODUCTION

A robust structure of administration with clearly defined recruitment processes is the key to maintaining a vibrant democracy. Like India, many countries have a system of administration which has kept evolving with time.  Recruitment to a bureaucratic system can be made through either the spoils system or the merit system.

The merit system is the process of promoting and hiring government employees based on their ability to perform a job, rather than on their political connections.

The spoils system (also known as a patronage system) is a practice where a political party, after winning an election, gives government jobs to its supporters, friends and relatives as a reward for working toward victory, and as an incentive to keep working for the party

2.0 The American Civil Service

The American Civil services has had a long process of evolution. The various acts which influenced it were the Pendleton Act of 1883, The Ramspeck Act of 1940 , the Brownlow Committee (1936-1937), the First Hoover Commission (1949) and the Second Hoover Commission (1955). 

2.1 Central Personnel Agency    

Until 1978, the United States Civil Service Commission was the central personnel agency in the USA and hence managed the federal civil service. It consisted of three civil service commissioners appointed by the President with the consent of the Senate. Their term was indefinite and they could be removed by the President alone. The Pendleton Act required the Commission to be bipartisan, that is, the two commissioners should belong to one political party and the remaining one should belong to the other political party. As a central personnel agency, it performed a large number of functions relating to classification, recruitment, promotion, training, pay and service conditions, personnel research, and so on. It was responsible for both administration and adjudication of the merit system. However, it was not found to be very effective in giving staff aid to the President in personnel matters and in protecting the merit system established by the Pendleton Act and other later laws and executive orders. Hence, the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 abolished the three member bipartisan United States Civil Service Commission and created three separate and independent agencies namely, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the Merit System Protection Board (MSPB) and the Federal Labour Relations Authority (FLRA).

• The Office of Personnel Management is the central personnel agency in the USA. It manages the federal civil service and determines the direction of the development of the merit system. It assumed all the functions (except the quasi-judicial) of the former United States Civil Service Commission. Its responsibilities include the following.

1. Preparing personnel policies, rules and regulations
2. Administering civil service examinations 
3. Recruiting and promoting civil servants 
4. Development and training of employees 
5. Personnel investigations 
6. Personnel program evaluation
7. Administering retirement and insurance programmes 
8. Providing guidance to other personnel agencies 

• The OPM is headed by a Director. He is appointed by the President with the consent of the Senate. His term of office is four years.

• The Merit System Protection Board (MSPB) assumed the quasi-judicial functions of the former United States Civil Service Commission. It is the watchdog agency of the federal civil service merit system and protects federal employees from abuses and prohibited personnel practices. It hears and adjudicates appeals by federal employees on adverse personnel actions like removals, suspensions and demotions. It has the authority to enforce its decisions and to order corrective and disciplinary actions. The MSPB consists of three members. They are appointed by the President of the USA with the approval of the Senate. Their term of office is seven years. Like the former civil service commission, it is also bipartisan in composition. Within the MSPB, an Office of Special Counsel (OSC) was created. It functions as an independent investigative and prosecutorial agency and litigates before the MSPB. Its main role is to protect the employees from prohibited personnel practices, especially reprisal for whistleblowing, that is, reporting on waste, fraud and corruption of an administrative agency. Such employees are called 'whistleblowers' and are protected from any form of reprisal in return for information on agency abuses.

• The Federal Labour Relations Authority (FLRA) was set up to consolidate the central policy-making functions in federal labour-management relations. It administers the federal service labour-management relations under the provisions of the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978. The FLRA consists of three members. They are appointed by the President with the approval of the Senate. Their term of office is five years. Within the FLRA, there are two more entities namely, the Office of General Counsel (OGC) and the Federal Service Impasses Panel (FSIP). The OGC investigates and prosecutes unfair labour practices. The FSIP provides assistance in resolving negotiation impasses between agencies and unions.

• In addition to the above three independent agencies created by the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, there is an independent personnel agency called Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). It was created in 1964 by the Civil Rights Act and federal employment was put in its jurisdiction in 1978. It eliminates discrimination based on race, colour, religion, sex, national origin, disability or age in both government and private employment. In 1978, the federal equal employment functions of the former Civil Service Commission were transferred to the EEOC. It consists of five members. They are appointed by the President with the approval of the Senate. Their term of office is five years.

2.2 Classification 

The USA has the system of position classification as against the system of rank classification which is prevalent in the UK, France and India. Under the US system of position classification, the civil service positions are classified on the basis of duties, responsibilities and qualifications.

The Classification Act of 1923 provided for the first federal classification programme in the USA. It defined grades, qualifications and salary ranges. This Act was revised in 1949. The Revised Classification Act of 1949 classified the federal employees in the USA into five services. They are:

1. Professional and Scientific
2. Sub-Professional and Sub-Scientific
3. Clerical, Administrative and Fiscal
4. Custodial
5. Mechanical

According to jobs and pay scales, the federal personnel are grouped into 18 General Schedule Grades (GS-1 to GS-18). The GS-16 to GS-18 are the 'Supergrades' consisting of top-level civil servants involved in management functions. The members of these supergrades are experts in a 'professional speciality' as against the 'professional amateurs' of the British administrative class. These professional elites are part of the Senior Executive Service (SES).

The SES was created by the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 on Recommendation of the Second Hoover Commission of 1955 and became operational in 1979. It is a blend of both the specialists and the generalists and consists of an elite class of managers outside the regular merit system. It covers about 9,000 senior policy-making and supervisory executive branch positions which were earlier in the category of classified service. They fall in the category of 'excepted service' as against the 'competitive service' (i.e. classified service). The excepted service positions are outside the scope of civil service laws and filled by appointment without an examination.

2.3 Recruitment   

The salient features of recruitment system in the USA are:

1. The OPM conducts civil service examinations for federal jobs. The examinations are practical in nature.
2. There is a system of 'lateral entry'. This facilitates entry of candidates into civil service at all ages and at all level. This helps the movement of candidates between government and private enterprises.
3. There are four types of examination - written tests, oral tests, performance tests, and ranking tests (i.e. evaluation of candidates on the basis of their education, training and experience).
4. The examinations are either 'assembled' or 'unassembled,' as they are called in administrative phraseology of the USA. In case of assembled examination, candidates are tested simultaneously in large groups at a designated place. It is a written examination and used for filling positions of clerical nature. In case of unassembled examination, candidates are tested individually and separately. There is no formal examination and the selection is by means of an interview and testimony. It is used in filling higher positions.
5. The Federal Service Entrance Exam and the Professional and Administrative Career Exam are the two major exams.
6. No definite educational qualification is prescribed. Anybody can enter into the civil service provided he qualifies in the competitive examination. However, residential qualification has to be fulfilled.
7. Candidates who pass the examination for a particular job are placed on a list in the order of their grades. However, extra points are granted to the ratings of veterans (five points), disabled veterans (ten points) and certain dependents of veterans.
8. When a vacancy occurs in a federal agency, the appointing officer should fill it by selecting one of the first three persons on the eligible list for that job. This method of selection is called as the 'rule of three'.

2.4 Training 

The USA has developed a system of both pre-entry training and in-service training. The two forms of pre-entry training in the USA are the internship and the apprenticeship. Internship is concerned with administrative or professional work, while apprenticeship is concerned with trade or craft skills.

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM), federal agencies, universities and specialised institutes are involved in the training of civil servants. The OPM is responsible for the overall supervision and coordination of training programmes. The federal agencies provide special and general training for their personnel. The universities play an important role in imparting in-service training to the public personnel. The Maxwell Graduate School of Citizenship and Public Affairs (Syracuse University), The Institute of Public Administration (Michigan University), the School of Public and Business Administration (Cornell University), the Wharton School (Pennsylvania University), The School of Business and Civil Administration (Columbia University), the Harvard School of Public Administration and the National Institute of Public Affairs (Washington) are engaged in imparting training to the civil servants.

An important feature of training in the USA is the system of 'Inter-agency Reimbursable Training,' conducted by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). In this training programme, the OPM offers a training course to federal agencies and charges a fee to the sponsoring agency. These programmes cover various subjects like management sciences, financial management, personnel management, operations research, training of trainers, communications, automatic data processing, and so on.

There is a system of efficiency rating for the purpose of promotion. There are four types of efficiency rating:

1. Production Records System
2. Trait Rating System (Graphic Rating Scale System) 
3. Ordinary Laffan System (Substantiating Evidence Reports System)
4. Personality Inventory System (Analysical Check List System of Rating or Probst System).

2.5 Pay and service conditions

1. The USA has a number of pay plans depending on the nature of job. Each plan has a series of grades (i.e. levels) with a range of salary steps within each grade. The Office of Personnel Management and the Bureau of Labour Statistics are involved in salary administration. 
2. Apart from pay (compensation), the civil servants are also given various kinds of allowances which are fixed on the basis of the prevailing price index.
3. The civil servants are given the right to become members of any service association. The Lloyd La Follete Act of 1912 governs this right. The Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 also affirms the right of federal civil servants to form labour organisations and bargain collectively. Important federal employees' unions are - the American Federation of Government Employees, the National Federation of Federal Employees and the National Association of Government Employees.
4. The civil servants do not enjoy the right to strike. This right is denied to them by the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 (i.e. Labour-Management Relations Act). This Act is a major revision of the Wagner Act of 1935 (i.e. National Labour Relations Act). The Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 also forbids strikes, picketing or slow downs that interfere with government operations.
5. Except the right to vote in elections and right to freedom of expression on political subjects, all other political rights of civil servants are severely restricted in the USA. While the First Hatch Act of 1939 (i.e. Political Activities Act) puts limitations on the political activities of the federal employees, the Second Hatch Act of 1940 (which was repealed in 1974) imposed similar restrictions on state and local employees.
6. The retirement age for civil servants is 65 to 70 years. The Retirement Act of 1920 (revised in 1930 and 1956) set up a pension system for civil servants.

3.0 British Civil Service

Till the middle of the nineteenth century, Britain had the patronage system of civil service. The civil service posts were given as a political reward or a personal favour. An ordinary citizen who had the required merit but no patronage could not enter the civil service. This type of civil service led to corruption and inefficiency in administration.

However, the increased concern about corruption, economy, efficiency and popular rights to public office gave rise to the modern civil service by the middle of the 19th century.

The British Civil Service, as it developed in the course of time, came to be organised on the principles recommended by the Northcote-Trevelyan Report of 1854. Later, some changes were introduced on the recommendations of the Play Fair Commission (1875), Ridley Commission (1886-90), MacDonnel Commission (1912-15), Haldane Committee (1918), Bradbury Committee (1918-19), Tomlin Commission (1929-31), Barlow Committee (1943), Assheton Committee (1944), Masterman Committee (1948), Priestley Commission (1953-55), Plowden Committee on Control of Public Expenditure (1961), and the Morton Committee (1963). It was again reorganised on a large scale only in the late 1960s on the basis of the diagnosis made by the Fulton Committee Report of 1968. In the recent period, some minor changes were effected in the civil service as a result of the recommendations made by the Davies Report of 1969 (on Method-II), the Franks Report of 1972 (on the Official Secrets Act of 1911), Megaw Report of 1982, the Atkinson Report of 1983, Sir Robins Report of 1988, and the lbbs Report of 1988.

3.1 The Northcote-Trevelyan Report (1854) 

The British Treasury appointed the Northcote-Trevelyan Committee in April 1853. Its report on the 'Organisation of the permanent civil service in Britain' was published in 1854. Its main recommendations are:

1. The patronage system of recruitment should be abolished.
2. Recruitment should be by open competitive examination. 
3. A civil service commission should be established. It should be an autonomous semi-judicial body and made responsible for proper administration of recruitment process. 
4. Promotion within the service should be by merit and not seniority.
5. The intellectual side of administration should be separated from the mechanical side. In other words. the civil service posts should be divided into two classes, namely, the superior class and the inferior class. The superior class should perform intellectual work while the inferior class should do mechanical work. These two classes should have separate forms of recruitment.
6. Recruitment age for inferior posts should be 17 to 23 and for superior posts 19 to 25. Thus, it confined entry into civil service to young men only and rejected the idea of recruiting mature men. 
7. Superior civil servants should be selected on the basis of general intellectual attainment rather than specialised knowledge. In other words, the open competitive examination should be in liberal arts rather than technical or professional subjects and should be of the university level. 
8. Unification of the civil service with unified recruitment and inter-departmental promotions. The committee felt that this unification would remedy the 'fragmentary character' of the civil service. The Civil Service Commission was established in 1855 by an order-in-council as an independent body to test candidates for recruitment. In the beginning, it tested, by examination, only those candidates who were nominated by the heads of departments. But after 1870, open competition organised by it became the only method of entry into the civil service. This merit system became a reality in Britain in 1870.

3.2 The Fulton Report (1968) 

In 1966, the British Government appointed the Fulton Committee on the Civil Service to examine the structure, recruitment, training and management of the Home Civil Service and to make recommendations for improvement. The Committee submitted its report in 1968 and observed that "the Home Civil Service today is still fundamentally the product of the nineteenth century philosophy of the Northcote-Trevelyan Report. The task it faces are those of the second half of the twentieth century. This is what we have found; it is what we seek to remedy." It made totally 158 recommendations and the significant ones related to the civil service are mentioned below.

1. A new civil service department should be created to manage the civil service. It should be headed by the Prime Minister and should absorb the Civil Service Commission. The Permanent Secretary of the civil service department should be designated as Head of the Home Civil Service. 
2. All classes should be abolished and replaced by a single unified grading structure covering all civil servants from top to bottom. The correct grading of each post should be determined by job evaluation. 
3. A civil service college should be setup to provide post-entry training for recruits. It should offer training courses in administration, management, economics and other allied subjects. The training courses should include management training for specialists also. Further, the college should provide a wide range of shorter courses and have important research functions.
4. There should be greater mobility between the civil service and other employments, that is, the universities and the private sector. The opportunities for late entry and short-term appointments should be expanded.
5. When recruiting university graduates, the relevance of their courses to the job they are being recruited to do should be taken into account. In other words, preference should be given to relevant degrees when recruiting.

3.3 Central Personnel Agency 

Till October 31, 1968 the British Treasury was the Central Personnel Agency and managed the civil service. But on November 1,1968 the Civil Service Department was established on the recommendation of the Fulton Committee Report. This department replaced Treasury as the Central Personnel Agency and also absorbed the Civil Service Commission as an independent unit within it. However, this department was disbanded in 1981 to effect economy, and its functions were distributed between the Treasury and the Management and Personnel Office. In 1987, the Management and Personnel Office was abolished and replaced by the office of the Minister for the Civil Service. To sum up, the British Civil Service as of now is managed by the Treasury and the office of the Minister for the Civil service, which works under the control of the Prime Minister of Britain.

Recruitment: In the UK, recruitment to the civil service is based on competitive examinations conducted by the Civil Service Commission. The Commission forwards the list of the successful candidates to the heads of departments for appointment.

Till 1945, Method-I was the only avenue of entry into the higher civil service, that is, the Administrative Class. The examination under Method I consisted of a qualifying written examination followed by an interview. The written examination comprised of essay, language, current affairs and optional subjects.

In 1945, an alternative approach called Method II was introduced. This method emphasised on a series of individual and group interviews, in addition to a qualifying written examination. The candidates were taken by the Civil Service Selection Board to a country house for an extended interview for two days. Hence, this method was also called the Country House Method. Therefore, selection under Method-II was by the method of 'extended interview' or 'reconstruction competition.' In 1969, Method-I was totally discontinued. Hence from 1970, Method-II is the sole mode of testing the merit and suitability of the candidates for entry into civil services. In 1971, a system of selection of Administrative Trainees on the lines of Method-II, for careers in the new administrative group was introduced on the recommendations of the Fulton Committee. The selected candidates (administrative trainees) had a two-year probationary period followed by a sixteen-week training course at the Civil Service College.

3.4 Training 

The institution of formal training for higher civil service in the UK can be traced to the Assheton Committee Report on the Training of Civil Servants, published in 1944. The Committee which was appointed in 1943 under the chairmanship of Sir Ralph Assheton, recommended centralised arrangements for training entrants to the higher civil service, that is, the Administrative Class. On its recommendation, a training and education division was set up in the British Treasury to coordinate and administer training courses for higher civil servants. The major training centres in the UK are:

1. Administrative Staff College, set up in 1948 at Henley-on-Thames to provide external training in management
2. Centre for Administrative Studies, set up in 1963 at London
3. Royal College of Defence Studies at London provides training for diplomatic service
4. Civil Service College

The Civil Service College is the main training centre in the UK. It was set up in 1969 on the recommendation of the Fulton Committee Report. It comprises a head quarter and two regional centres. The head quarter is at Sunningdale Park while the regional centres are in London and Edinburgh. It performs the following four main functions.

1. It provides post-entry training for recruits (administrative or generalist) in financial, economic or social areas of administration.
2. It offers specialised courses for specialists in administration and management. 
3. It conducts research on problems related to administration.
4. It gives general guidance and advice to departments which carry out training for the executive and clerical staff.

Promotion: In the UK, promotions in civil service are a departmental affair. In every department, the departmental promotion boards are constituted by the head. They advise the minister and Permanent Secretary on matters of promotion.

In the annual reports, the employees are evaluated as outstanding, very good, satisfactory, indifferent and poor. Then, the candidates are classified into the following four categories:

1. Extraordinarily fit for promotion
2. Highly fit for promotion
3. Fit for promotion
4. Not yet fit for promotion

The important elements of the system of promotion in the UK are:

1. The candidates are informed well in time of the vacant positions which are to be filled by promotion. 
2. The suitability of the candidates for promotion is determined by a board rather than a single individual. 
3. The aggrieved party has the right to appeal against the decisions concerning promotion. However, no appeal can be made to any authority above the head of the department.
4. In practice, the consent of the Prime Minister is necessary to make promotions to the positions of Permanent Secretary, Deputy Secretary, Finance Officer and Establishment Officer.

3.5 Pay and Service Conditions

1. Since 1971, pay for civil servants in the UK is fixed on the basis of the 'Priestly Formula'. This formula recommended higher pay scales based on income policies of government and comparison with private sector pay scales. Pay is fixed and controlled by the British Treasury and Personnel Department.
2. Apart from the pay (salary), civil servants in the UK are also given various kinds of allowances which are fixed on the basis of the prevailing price index.
3. The civil servants in the UK are given the right to association. They also enjoy the right to associate with the trade unions to uphold their political ideologies. However, only the Union of Post Office Workers is associated with the Labour Party.
4. The civil servants in the UK are not specifically denied the right to strike under the law. But striking by civil servants is a disciplinary offence.
5. In the UK, there is a total ban on political rights and activities of the higher civil servants. This prohibition becomes progressively less strict for the middle and lower grades of the civil service. The lower grade personnel can participate almost in all of political activities. The political activities of the civil servants are monitored by the Treasury. The Masterman Committee on the political activities of civil servants in the UK in its report of 1949 stated that: “In a democratic society it is desirable for all citizens to have a say in the affairs of the state, and for as many as possible to play an active part in public life. The public interest demands the maintenance of political impartiality in the civil service and of confidence in that impartiality as an essential part of the structure of government in this country.”

Therefore, the Masterman Committee noted that 'any weakening of the existing tradition of political impartiality would be the first step in the creation of a "political" civil service... Such a system would be contrary to the public interest and, in the long run, the civil service itself.'

The retirement age for civil servants in the UK is 60 to 65 years. They enjoy the usual retirement benefits.

3.6 Whitley Councils 

The UK has the institution of Whitley Councils for the purpose of negotiation and settlement of disputes on service conditions between the employer (state) and employee (staff). The following points can be noted regarding this unique institution of UK.

• These Councils were set up first in 1917 in private industries on the recommendation of the Whitley Committee ‘Report on Relations between Employers and Employees’. 
• The Whitley Councils were established in the sphere of civil service in 1919 on the recommendation of the Ramsay-Bunning Committee Report. 
• The Whitley Councils in the civil service operate at national, departmental and local levels. The National Council deals with all matters of service conditions affecting the civil service as a whole.
• Whitley Councils at all levels consists of an equal number of representatives of the government (employer) and the staff (employee). The officers class (i.e., directing and supervisory staffs) represents the government side, while the middle and lower categories of staff represents the staff side, 
• The official side and the staff side negotiate through the Whitley Council machinery operating at three levels. Whitleyism is therefore, a system of periodical discussion at various levels between the representatives of the government and staff for the purpose of settling the disputes on service conditions, 
• The National Whitley Council consists of 54 members, 27 from each side. The Chairman of the Council belongs to the official side, while the Vice-Chairman to the staff side. The head of the Home Civil Service acts as the Chairman of the Council. 
• These Whitely Councils have no power of decision, but only of recommendation. They arc only advisory bodies. Moreover, the Councils do not take up individual cases. The Departmental Councils (about 70 in number) operate within the ministries and the National Council performs central advisory functions for the government. 
• When there is a disagreement between the official side and the staff side on matters of pay, hours of service and leave, provision is made for arbitration, 
• The Civil Service Arbitration Tribunal was set up in 1936 and consists of the Chairman  and two other members. The awards of the Tribunal are final, subject to the overriding power of the Parliament of the UK. 
• The objectives of the Whitley Councils are:

1. To provide machinery for the discussion and ventilation of the grievances related to the service conditions of the staff.
2. To secure maximum cooperation between the state (as employer) and the general body of civil servants (as employees) for improving efficiency in public service and wellbeing of the staff.
3. To bring together the experience and different viewpoints of the representatives of administrative, executive and clerical civil service in solving the problems.

• To attain the above mentioned objectives, the Whitley Councils perform the following functions:

1. Providing the best means for utilising the experience and ideas of the staff.
2. Securing, to the staff, a greater share of responsibility for the determination and observance of the conditions under which they carry out their duties.
3. Determination of the general principles governing recruitment, hours of work, promotion, discipline, tenure, salary and retirement. Discussion on individual cases relating to promotion and disciplinary matters is not permitted.
4. Encouraging further education and training of civil servants in higher administration and organi station.
5. Improving office machinery and organisation and providing opportunities for the maximum consideration of suggestions made by the staff on this subject.
6. Proposing legislation so far as it has a bearing on the position of civil servants in relation to their employment.

4.0 Japanese Civil Service

The Japanese Civil Service underwent a basic change after the Meiji Restoration in 1868. It was organised along the German lines (i.e., Weberian model of bureaucracy). Thus, the civil service or bureaucracy in the modern sense owes its origin in Japan to the Meiji Restoration.

In the early years of Meiji era, the civil servants were appointed on the basis of patronage considerations. It was in 1885 that the merit principle of recruitment was adopted. The first competitive examination for recruitment was held in 1887.

However, the Japanese civil service still drew legitimacy from the Emperor and not from the people. The bureaucrat was officially viewed as a chosen servant of the Emperor and not as a public servant. He was responsible to the Emperor, not to the people.

After the Second World War, the Occupation Authorities (1945-1952) reformed the Japanese Civil Service along the American lines. They democratised, modernised, rationalised, and professionalised the civil service in Japan.

In 1946, the United States Personnel Advisory Mission was sent to Japan to study the existing civil service system and suggest remedial measures. On the basis of its recommendation, the National Public Service Law was enacted by the Diet in 1947. This is the most important law regulating the civil service in Japan. It seeks to model the Japanese Civil Service after the American one.

The MacArthur constitution of 1947 changed the entire concept of civil service in Japan. It made the following provisions in this regard:

1. All public officials are servants of the whole community and not of any group thereof (Article 15).
2. Every person may sue for redress as provided by law from the state or a public entity, in case he has suffered damage through illegal act of any public official (Article 17).

Thus, the new constitution has made the civil service in Japan an instrument of governance under the democratic political system.

One major trend in the civil service of Japan has been an enormous increase in the number of pubic officials. From 1940 to 1965, the increase was sevenfold. In 1965, the number of civilian officials of the central government was more than 16 lakhs. To deal with this expanding administrative staff, the following measures were taken:

1. The Diet enacted in 1969 'The Total Staff Number Law' stipulating the total number of officials covering all ministries, commissions and agencies. Within this limit, the government can determine the number of officials in each ministry, commission, or agency. 
2. The Government adopted the National Personnel Curtailment Plan to cut-back the size of public officials.

As a result of the above measures, the public employment in Japan has levelled off in recent years. Now, administrative staff in Japan is the smallest when compared to the other major industrialised nations of the world.

So far, two administrative reform commissions were appointed in Japan. They are: 

1. First Provisional Commission for Administrative Reform. It was set up in 1962 and was modelled on the Second Hoover Commission (1955) of the US.
2. Second Provisional Commission for Administrative Reform. It was set up in 1981 under the Chairmanship of Toshio Doko.

4.1 National Personnel Authority

The NPA is the brain child of the USA. In fact, it is modelled after the Civil Service Commission of the USA (which was abolished and replaced by the Office of Personnel Management in 1978). Its counterpart in India lies in a combination of UPSC and Ministry of Personnel. In other words, the functions performed by the two Indian agencies are performed in Japan by the NPA alone. it is a statutory body and not a constitutional one. It is an autonomous body, that is, it functions independently of the Diet and the cabinet. It administers the National Public Service Law and thus look after the management of civil service in Japan.

Like the former US Civil Service Commission, the NPA is a three-member body-a President and two commissioners. They are appointed by the Cabinet. Their appointment requires the approval of the Diet and the attestation of the Emperor. No two commissioners can be members of the same political party or graduates of the same department of the same university. The term of office of a commissioner is four years. He can be reappointed. However, he cannot remain in office continuously for a period exceeding 12 years.

The NPA is charged with the responsibility of introducing democratic methods, providing scientific personnel management and creating a job classification system. Its functions include the following: 

1. Conducting recruitment examinations 
2. Developing and enforcing position classification plan
3. Training of civil servants
4. Improving the efficiency of public officials
5. Promotion of civil servants
6. Examining and redressing the grievances of public officials
7. Maintenance of discipline in public services
8. Recommending on compensation and other service conditions
9. Setting up procedures and standards on various aspects of personnel administration
10. Maintenance of fairness in personnel administration. The NPA submits an annual report on its activities to the Diet and the cabinet.

Apart from NPA, the following three agencies are also involved in the management of civil service in Japan.

1. Prime Minister's Office
2. Management and Co-ordination Agency (set up in 1984 on the recommendation of the Second Provisional Commission for Administrative Reform)
3. Bureau of Budget in the Finance Ministry

4.2 Classification 

The National Public Service Law divides the national public service into the special service and the regular service. 

The civil service positions in Japan are classified, for the purpose of salary administration, into the following sixteen services:

1. Administrative Service (I)
2. Administrative Service (II)
3. Public Security Service (I)
4. Public Security Service (II)
5. Educational Service (I)
6. Educational Service (II)
7. Educational Service (III) 
8. Educational Service (IV)
9. Marine Service (I)
10. Marine Service (II)
11. Medical Service (I)
12. Medical Service (II)       
13. Medical Service (III)
14. Taxation Service
15. Research Service
16. Designated Service

4.3 Training    

Training of civil servants in Japan is the responsibility of the NPA. For this purpose, the NPA has set up an Institute of Public Administration (IPA) in the Saitama Prefecture near Tokyo. The IPA conducts a number of training programmes for middle and senior level civil servants  and is headed by a career civil servant and works directly under the NPA.

Since 1967, the IPA has been organising a joint introductory training programme for the newly recruited higher civil servants including 'careermen' - the successfuls of the Principal Senior A-Class Entrance Examination. The duration of this programme is four days and its objectives are: 

1. To promote esprit de corps and mutual understanding among them.
2. To create in them a feeling of public servants.
3. To make them community conscious.

This programme of Japan can be compared to the Indian combined foundational training course organised by the National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie. But there is a difference. The Indian programme is more comprehensive in coverage and longer in duration (four months) than the Japanese one.

After the completion of the four-day joint introductory training programme, the probationers begin their career in the allocated ministries. There, they undergo informal training (on-the-job training) that is, learning the work by actually doing the work under the guidance of Senior Officers. Moreover, they remain in the same ministries throughout their career. This makes them specialists in the work of their ministries.

The training imparted to the probationers of the Foreign Service of Japan is more detailed and longer in duration - about three or four years. The various components of their training programme along with the respective durations are mentioned below:

1. Institutional training at the Foreign Service Training Institute4 months
2. On-the-job training at the headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs1 year
3. Posting in diplomatic mission as an attache for foreign language instruction2 or 3 years

4.4 Promotion    

The National Public Service Law makes the following two provisions with respect to the promotions in the civil service of Japan:

1. Promotion of personnel shall be by competitive examination among incumbents of government positions of lower levels than that of the government position under consideration for promotion, 
2. In cases where the NPA deems it impracticable to hold an examination among the incumbents concerned, promotion may be made by means of an evaluation based on the past service record of such incumbent.

In short, the Law provides for two principles of promotion-tested merit and performance evaluation. However, in practice, the promotions are based on seniority of service. In other words, seniority principle is strongly established in the Japanese civil service. The next important factor taken into account for promotions is the educational background of the civil servant, that is, the university attended and the field of academic specialisation.

The civil servants can rise to the position of Section Chief after nearly 15 years of service, Director after 20 years, Director-General after 25-28 years, and Administrative Vice-Minister after 28-30 years. The post of Administrative Vice-Minister is the highest post a civil servant can aspire to rise to. It is equivalent of the Secretary to the Government of India.

Promotion of civil servants from the level of Divisional Chief (Director) and above requires the prior approval of the NPA.

Another important feature of the promotion at the senior level of administration in Japan is the system of collective seniority (batch-based seniority). 

This means that the civil servants who have the same seniority are promoted at the same time. In other words, the system of batch-based seniority results in bulk promotions. Those who do not get promoted, due to limited opportunities at the higher level, resign and leave the civil service. Thus, promotions and resignations go together. The resigned civil servants join private enterprises or semi-autonomous public corporations or take to active politics. This is popularly known in Japan as 'Second Career'. It must be emphasised here that a significant percentage of the Diet, 20% of the post-war cabinet ministers and half of the post-war prime ministers in Japan have been former civil servants.

4.5 Pay and Service Conditions    

1. The National Public Service Law provides that the personnel shall be compensated on the basis of the duties and responsibilities of their positions. Accordingly, Japan has adopted the principle of 'fair comparison' with outside organisations for salary-fixation of its civil servants. The NPA annually surveys thousands of companies to ascertain the salary levels in the private sector. Based on the finding, the NPA develops a pay plan and submits it to the Diet and the cabinet.
2. Apart from the regular salary, the civil servants are also given various allowances like housing allowance, special area-work allowance, overtime allowance, cold district-allowance, family allowance, special work allowance, and so on.
3. Like the USA, Japan also grants its civil servants the right to association. However, the police personnel and the personnel working in the Maritime Safety Agency or in penal institutions are denied this right.
4. Like the USA, Japan also does not grant the right to strike to its civil servants. Thus, in Japan, it is illegal for the civil servants to participate in a strike.
5. Like the USA, Japan also places restrictions on the political activities of civil servants. Except the right to vote, they do not enjoy any other political rights.
6. In 1985, the retirement age for civil servants was fixed at 60 years. Before that, there was no compulsory retirement provision. It was governed by conventions. On retirement, a civil servant is rewarded by the government with a placement in a private corporation. The system is called 'amakudari' which literally means 'descent from heaven'. The post-retirement placement is done by a committee within the ministry in which he worked throughout his governmental career.

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