Hiring, Promoting and Firing Top Public Officials

Abstract

The panel includes studies of the importance of loyalty and competence/merit for decisions to hire, promote, and fire officials in ministries and agencies. Papers study the relative balance between the two criteria and address debates about politicization of bureaucracy. In addition, papers study the importance of non-political criteria for selecting candidates to political appointed positions, and the importance of political craft as a phenomenon separate from party political loyalty. Papers use single-country and cross-country designs and qualitative and quantitative data.