Służba publiczna/en

PUBLIC SERVICE ̶ activities performed on behalf of a state / international organizations / integration groups for citizens / society in → public interest. In functional terms, p.s. means such an organization of persons employed on behalf of a state / international organization / integration groups in which their activity is to provide benefits and implementation of → public services, in order to meet the collective and individual needs of individuals and society. In terms of purpose, p.s. is a set of activities and actions that are aimed at providing public services, such as public safety and order, health care, education, electricity, heat and water supply, municipal waste collection or organization of collective or individual transport in specific forms regulated by law. In axiological terms, p.s. is the act of performing public services for all members of society, regardless of their financial and social status (this assumption results from both ethical reasons and social consensus expressed by the system of a democratic rule of law). Persons employed by the state / international organizations / integration groups and acting on their behalf are guided by public ethics, i.e. special values in public activities - such as political neutrality, responsibility, mission, dedication, professionalism, dedication to service, honor, reliability and impartiality. Persons employed in p.s. are characterized by social responsibility, i.e. action aimed at satisfying social needs rather than achieving individual profits. Their goal is to achieve public good, i.e. good which is uncompetitive and does not exclude anyone. In praxeological terms, p.s. employees are, for social and political reasons, usually subject to separate legal provisions that go beyond the Labor Code; in a narrow sense they are employed in → the civil service, in the widest - they are all those who perform tasks on behalf of the state (local government employees, foreign service, state administration employees, uniformed services, politicians, EU external services). However, it should be remembered that people employed in p.s. may be subject to the same labor law provisions as those employed in other sectors (e.g. in New Zealand - the Employment Contract Act 1991). P.s. can be considered from the point of view of subject and object. Subjectively - as a separate corps of persons employed on the basis of law in public institutions, guided by official pragmatics, serving society and performing important functions of the state. Objectively - as persons who perform broadly understood public services on behalf of a state / international organizations / integration groups. Considering the problem in terms of efficiency, attention should be paid not so much to the purpose of its operation as to the efficiency in satisfying social needs and to the degree of securing social trust. (→ right of access to public service) [J. Itrich-Drabarek]

Literature: J. Itrich-Drabarek, Conditions, standards and directions of changes in the civil service in Poland against the background of European conditions, Warsaw 2010 ■ Password: Public sector, [in:] The OECD Glossary of Statistical Terms, [online] https: // stats .oecd.org / glossary / detail.asp? ID = 2199 [access: November 2019].