The British Bureaucracy and the Origins of Parliamentary Policy, II

Thus far, reference has been made, not to the great mass of the civil servants, but only to the higher officials. The work of more than ninety-seven per cent of the members of the service has no significance for this study. The laborers, clerks, writing assistants, and a large majority of the members of the professional class make only incidental contributions to policy, and while their importance is occasionally to be noted, we are not concerned here with a detailed examination of their work. Suffice it to say that the 150,000 who are usually referred to by the term “civil service†possess a certain esprit that links the members together. Within this number, however, there are marked divisions: there is the foreign, diplomatic, and consular service, the colonial service, the defense services, and the home service, all with their peculiarities, often of outlook and sometimes of mode of recruitment, salary, or promotion. Outside of this group fall such diverse units as the local government service, the large judicial service, and the employees of such semi-independent agencies as the British Broadcasting Corporation and the Central Electricity Board. Our interest here is centered on the more important members of the professional or specialist class of some 14,000 members, the higher officials of the executive grade numbering between 4,000 and 5,000, and the administrative class with its small but highly important membership of 1,200 to 1,300.