The Dangerous Devaluation of the Civil Service Profession
By David Goldman, FASPE Chair
We are seeing a complete dismantling of the Civil Service. Brick by brick the edifice is stripped. Let’s not pretend otherwise: this is not “Government Efficiency;” this is no careful exercise in identifying inefficiency and taking measured actions in response. Nor is this about fraud and abuse; no connections have been made between the terminations and fact-based accusations (let alone proof) of fraud and abuse.
How can we explain this behavior? How can we explain the failure of any uniform uproar, any cohesive resistance in opposition?
Americans do not respect the Civil Service. Americans all too often dismiss the Civil Service as a collection of slow moving, lazy, 9 to 5, paycheck-cashing parasites on the American public. (Apologies if I exaggerate, using the language of so-called DOGE for the sake of drama)—these times call for explicitness, for directness. Elon Musk, with his clownish chainsaw-antics, takes advantage of this unfortunate reality.
Europeans do respect the Civil Service. The Civil Service is embedded in the very core of European civil society. Young people strive to become civil servants, serving their countries and the European project. They do not do it for the money, for the pension, or for the power—each of which could be found in greater quantities elsewhere. They become civil servants because they believe in the impact such professionals can have.
Consider what the Civil Service in America is: the bodies that defend the rule of law; that defend “the homeland” from both internal and external threats; that protect our physical health: that establish the rules that create order in dealing with otherwise dangerous modes of transportation, firearms, drugs and medical devices; that protect us consumers from corrupt business practices; that feed and clothe the poor among us; that feed, clothe and protect the underserved throughout the world in ways that have established America as a moral force; and on and on.
Why, then, do we not respect it?
The Civil Service is not composed of lazy pencil pushers. Some civil servants are lawyers; some are doctors. But many are professionals in their own right, people whose expertise lies in the particular methods and systems by which they do their work. The Civil Service is a profession. A profession according to FASPE’s own parlance.
FASPE does not follow the traditional definition of a profession—lawyers, doctors, engineers for whom there are formal certification requirements, educational prerequisites, and governing bodies. No, FASPE defines professions as those with outsized impact. By virtue of their impact, we must insist on their ethical behavior, on ethical leadership. Professionals make an impact. They have responsibility. And, that impact and responsibility derive not only from their expertise but also by virtue of the respect that we accord to them. Respect that they are due because of their impact. If this reasoning seems circular, it is only because of how deeply embedded each trait is in the other. It starts and ends at the same place—impact and expertise.
We would not tolerate the dismantling of our medical system—which is for sure inefficient and sadly ineffective—by having DOGE fire X% of doctors throughout America. Why the Civil Service?
Sowing distrust in our professions and professionals is at the heart of nationalist autocracies—from 1933, from earlier, down to today.
It is time for Americans to recognize the Civil Service as a profession; FASPE will do its part to lead that effort. For now, we must recognize the dismantling of this profession for what it is: an attempt to commandeer a critical part of what drives America, what protects America—what is America.
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