It violates statutes, undoes a century of civil service reform, and would derail government services. The Washington Monthly is an independent voice, listened to by insiders and willing to take on ...

The act of violence almost 150 years ago effectively gave birth to the civil service, that class of nonpartisan experts who ...

This quote, or at least some paraphrased version of it, has passed through the mouths, pens, keyboards and camera lenses of millions of people from nearly every position and profession for literal ...

An apolitical bureaucracy run by public servants who respect the law is one of the greatest achievements a society can attain ...

Since President Donald Trump began his second term last month, he has focused on dramatically reducing the federal workforce ...

This was the way it worked from Washington’s time until the Pendleton Act of 1883. When President James A. Garfield was assassinated by a Republican loyalist who was refused an appointment as ...

Public outrage spurred the Pendleton Act of 1883, establishing a professional workforce chosen for competence rather than partisan loyalty — a reform that curbed corruption and better served ...

No one cheers for bureaucracy, but consider what prevailed in the "good old days" before the Pendleton Act of 1883. As the government grew, the so-called "spoils system" grew with it, famously ...