Działania pozorne. Problem upolitycznienia procesu obsady wyższych stanowisk w służbie cywilnej w Polsce
Apparent actions. The problem of the politicization of the process of staffing the higher clerical positions in the polish civil service

Summary/Abstract: The civil service is one of the most important elements of governmental administration and has a great influence on the way a state performs its tasks. In the 90`s, it could be argued that Central-Eastern European Countries did not take sufficient care in reforming the public administration sector and creating the civil service, with the consequent problem of the politicization of public administration. The first parliamentary act in Poland concerning the civil service was passed only in 1996. Since that time the organizational principles for the civil service were changed three times. Currently in force is the 2008 Act on Civil Service. The civil service was intended to make public administration more professional, objective and independent of particular political interest. The professional civil servants should be politically neutral. Their position should be stable regardless of the changes of the ruling coalitions. However, in Poland political parties tend to restrict public administration autonomy and subordinate it to their interests. The aim of my paper is to analyze the staffing politics concerning senior posts in the civil service and to define the extent to which the actual practices has been in compliance with the formally defined principles. The situation in this field is presented from 1989, the post-Solidarity governance, until 2009, the present Donald Tusk government. In addition, the changes introduced by the Acts on Civil Service from 1996, 1998, 2006, and 2008 will be discussed as well as their influence of the praxis. It is argued that the ways in which the legal principles concerning staffing senior civil service posts have been enacted throughout the years can be seen as classic example of apparent actions considered by Jan Lutyński.

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