Abstract
The relationship between civil servants and their political masters, and the relative powers of these two sets of officials, is one of the central issues in contemporary governance. In political theory both group of actors in government can claim a legitimate role in policymaking. In democratic terms the claims of the political leaders are the stronger. These officials have a popular mandate through elections and therefore can claim to represent the will of the people. Although Richard Rose (1976) and others (Royed 2009) have pointed out that the connection between elections and policy choice is tenuous at best, there are still normative claims that they have the right to control policy.
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© 2013 B. Guy Peters
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Peters, B.G. (2013). Politicisation: What Is It and Why Should We Care?. In: Neuhold, C., Vanhoonacker, S., Verhey, L. (eds) Civil Servants and Politics. Public Sector Organizations. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137316813_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137316813_2
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
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