An investigation of three models of the relationship between political executives and career executives in American government

The enactment of the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 and the establishment of the Senior Executive Service was based in part on a trend towards a new type of administrative role already underway in the early 1970's in many Western democracies. The combination of more expertise on the part of the politically appointed executive and more political sensitivity on the part of the career executive in the Senior Executive Service was expected to assist in making the bureaucracies more responsive to the President.;A random sample of career appointees was drawn from the active members of the Senior Executive Service as of January 1, 1991. Each respondent was asked a series of questions designed to (1) identify their professional image of self as a public servant, (2) establish their primary purpose of service, (3) establish the general model into which their relationships with political executives currently falls, and (4) reflect their perceptions of the impact their Senior Executive Service experiences have had on these relationships. Cross tabulation, correlation and regression analysis was used to analyze the data.;No single dominant image of self as professional public career executive was found by this research. The expert image was most strongly supported while the critic image was most extensively supported. The most frequently reported relationship between career executives and politically appointed executives was an adversarial type. The research data collected for this study confirms the continuation of the uneasy partnership of career executives and their politically appointed superiors. The data support the conclusion that the Senior Executive Service is not perceived as very helpful by the career executives.