Study On The System Of Recruitment Of National Civil Servant Through Competitive Examination In Contemporary China

The scope of civil servant is different in different states. Acoording to chinese Civil Servant Law, civil servant is the people whose function is mainly executive; there is no distinction in the legal position between national and local civil servant; and the officer servicing the Communist Party is also regarded as civil servant. In order to avoid controversy which can not be discussed completely in a few pages of a dissertation and which may concern political debates, the scope of this article is limited to the persons who are recruited through competitive examination and who serve in the executive branch of national government. These persons are usually regarded as civil servants in various states including China. Nearly all textbooks and essays on the subject have concerned the system of recruitment through competitive examination, a large part of them usually describe the process only, a few may interpretate simply the basic principles upon which the system is built. Then, it is not impossible to improve the study on the academic basis we have achieved. Two types of original materials indispensable to the study are materials implying what the system of recruitment should be and that revealing what the system is practically to be. There are some difficulties to gather and use critically these types of materials.The spirit of recruitment through competitive examination is open and equal. There are two characteristics of the system of recruitment through competitive examination: firstly, the method used is regular, and secondly, only the objective qualification of the candidate should be examined. The objective qualification is that may be judged through a sery of objective standards and that may be achieved by common people.Recruitment by examination is a method more appropriate for securing the dynamic steady of the number of government officers than other methods used to choose public officers may do. It is also easy to combine recruitment by examination with the ideal of Rechtsstaat. At the same time, there are few flaws in this method, for example, the large surplus of recruits which originates from inappropriate plan by such departments as responsible for recruiting is not unfrequently. Recruitment restricted by law is lack of flexibility. While this method provides commons with opportunity to participate in the public administration, consequently, it is adverse to cultivate a mission of serving for the county and for the people in the group of civil servants.Recruitment through examination may be compared with other forms of examinations in various fields such as the employment of workers by private enterprises, the advertisement of students by universities, and the civil service examination system in ancient China. Recruitment through examination follows the principle of equality. It is based on the whole county instead of each province of the country. Different from the civil service examination system in ancient China, modern system of recruitment does not contribute in the making of a social class one of whose most important elements is organic solidarity, or solidaritéorganique as called by the French sociologist Durkheim.There are three issues affecting the operation of the system of recruit. Before the introduction of this system, the system of choosing and registering government officers is that of cadres under which all different kinds of cadres are administered indiscriminately through a uniform model and the basic spirit of which is military administration in civil field. The system of cadres has been not suitable for the social, political and economic development since 1990s and then the system of recruitment through examination is designed to take the place of the former system in a certain administration of cadres. In the process of the operation of the new system, the influence of the tradition of bureaucracy and the rigorous condition with which numbers of graduates being getting employment have been confronted should be considered too.Many questions arise in the process of operation of the system of recruitment through examination. Part three of this article concerns such questions as whether it is appropriate to demand one applicant of certain government office to be a member of the Communist Party; how to improve the model of the written and oral quizzes; the extent to which the discretionary power of examiners esp. of the interview should be specified by positive law; what the nature of the Treuepflich on the background of constitutional government; what the contents and standards of the examination of one candidate's body should be; whether preferential recruitment of particular group of persons is legitimate; how much information should be included in a public notification of pre-recruits; how to remedy an injustice in the process of recruiting and then the necessity of protecting the legal and legitimate right of one who flunks the competitive examination, etc.The elements of weakness of the system of recruitment through competitive examination in contemporary China are obvious. Some have their roots in the system itself , for example:1, Standardisation of examination is prejudice for the special education in universities or colleges. That the method used in the recruitment is stricted by law means lackness of flexibility. Qualified candidates can not be chosen through competitive examination.2, The discretionary power of the examiners of interview often be abused.3, The organization responsible to examine the political attitudes and activities of one candidates have the power which is not only discretionary, but arbitary, for the law in wide sense on the subject can only provide general principles. Then it is necessary to design such institution as to protect the legal and legitimate right of the candidate, but such institution has not existed.4, The difficulty with which one who has flunk the competitive examination is seeking remedy is not little.Another defects spring from the pratical operation of the system, for instance:1, There are many unreasonable demands for candidates, for example, qualification of foreign languages, relative experience, the member of the Communist Party, and so on.2, Although only the objective qualification of the candidates should be examined, the phenomana of preferential recruitment of particular groups of persons are not unfrequent.It is possible to design various projects to resolve the problems mentioned above. E. g., other methods used to choose public officer should be introduced. In order to create the interrelative and interaction between examination in the process of recruitment and special education in universities and colleges, special knowledge should be examined. It is necessary to regulate the discretionary power of examiners of interview through legislation. The right of one candidate to examine his own archive should be protected through positive law. The best way to realise equality is to forbid all forms of preferential recruitment. Lastly, public opinion and supervision in the administrative system are good for the operation of the system of recruitment through competitive examination.