Encyklopedia Administracji Publicznej MW Pivot Skin

SEPARATION OF POLITICS AND ADMINISTRATION – in contemporary democracies, the political sphere is separated from the administrative sphere, or at least attempts to be separated from it, as distinct, governed by special rules related to the fact that politics is a field of struggle for power controlled by political parties with different programmes. This power is exercised on behalf of the majority by the administration consisting of persons holding political and decision-making positions, which are filled by the winning political parties, and by persons in executive positions whose relationship with politics may vary (depending on the adopted solutions in particular country) – from full objectivity and political neutrality up to full partisanship and lack of political neutrality. It is accepted (though in different countries to varying degrees) that a certain number of strictly political positions is necessary for the implementation of political programmes. Due to the fact that within contemporary public administration the political and party factors blend with the professional official factor, the issue of political neutrality as a postulate that the state apparatus should not be the arm of the ruling political party in its executive activities is crucial and yet difficult to solve. This is due to the fact that officials should loyally implement the political programme of the government which holds electoral legitimacy, and at the same time they should be the institutional memory of the state that cannot be reduced to the ruling political party, and should guarantee equal treatment of citizens, regardless of their political views. The ban on the membership of officials in political parties (not everywhere applied) is not the only means of securing the political neutrality of public administration. A different approach is to formulate the principle of political neutrality of the civil service in the form of specific orders and prohibitions (catalogue of duties) regarding the conduct of an official, not only referring to the issue of the party affiliation of an official. Models of separation of politics from public administration can vary: 1. civil service constituting a permanent core of administrative institutions and concentration of ministerial advisors in political cabinets; 2. recognition of the highest administrative positions (deputy ministers, senior public managers) as political or subject to political criteria; 3. establishing the civil position of a “non-political” deputy minister; 4. providing political parties and ministers with a percentage share in filling posts in the administration; 5. indication of positions that are filled by omitting the political factor or its impact defined in law (competitions, recruitment through the so-called headhunting companies, internal promotions within the civil service). (→ political neutrality, civil service) [D. Długosz]

Literature: B. Kudrycka, Neutralność polityczna [Political neutrality], Warszawa 1998 ■ B. Page, Political Authority and Bureaucratic Power. A Comparative Analysis, New York 1992 ■ B.G. Peters, Administracja w systemie politycznym [Administration in political system], Warszawa 1999.