Why is the civil service called the civil service?

[BrilloPad]

After all they are neither civil nor provide a service.

[scooterscot]

Oxymoron perhaps?

[Bluebird]

I think it comes from the "civilian servant" as opposed to the Forces [ army, navy etc ]


It's nothing to do with being civil, so at least they've picked up on that point...

[Old Greg]

In Yes Minister they ask the question:

Why does everyone call them civil servants when they behave like arrogant masters?

[expat]

After all they are neither civil nor provide a service.

Civil as against military. They are not intended to be civil, but civilian. And they do provide a service: remember, they are On Her Majesty's Service, not yours.

[Kyajae]

In Yes Minister they ask the question:

Why does everyone call them civil servants when they behave like arrogant masters?

The civil service (and local government for that matter) has a culture that has taken many many years to cultivate.

It is a hierachial beast whith people occupying positions of responsibility but having no power to excercise that responsibility. Hence decision-making involves a long and ineficient process with little ownership. That's how the 'jobs-worth' phenomena arose.

It is still one of the few bastions of unionisation that still beleives everyone is equual when in reality this is not the case. Some people are better at their jobs than others. However, unionisation prevents any real attempt to incentivise people. Result? Faceless individuals who do as little as possible because there is no structure or carrot to make them see differently, and they can get away with it.

Finally, every politician who has tried to reform the public sector has failed because the public sector remains a rigid permanency whereas politicians are a transient force. The public sector has seen them come and go and knows that no one will change it because it is so entrenched and has to remain so to survive. It simply has too many vested interests and Spanish practices.

These are the reasons I got out of it and went self employed.

[threaded]

I can probably recite from memory a piece called: "The Dangers of a Salaried Bureaucracy"

Essentially, the problems inherent to a civil service are that people are paid to do the job, but the civil service is longer lived than the people. If people were not paid, or the civil service scrapped and reformed every ten years, then the problems would not occur.

threaded in "quoting famous masons" mode

[Bluebird]

The irony of a lot of govenrment agencies are they they are set up to support the British Economy by promoting inovation etc, but they are the ones who are most resistant to change...