The Privatization of the Public Workplace

Robert Roberts

DOI: 10.2190/WR.17.1.c

Abstract

This article examines the argument that civil service systems should adopt market-based human resource management policies and practices similar to those frequently used by for-profit private organizations, in order to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of public organizations. The article also examines the argument that public employees now typically enjoy job security and lucrative benefits not generally available to private sector employees, and that this situation needs to be adjusted in order to bring public sector compensation in line with private sector pay and benefits. The article argues that critics of the independence of civil servants in the United States have intentionally perpetrated the lie that incompetent, corrupt, and lazy individuals make up the majority of public employees. The fact that private sector employees have seen their economic well-being deteriorate over recent decades has made it much easier for critics of public employees to make public employees scapegoats for economic trends. The article also argues that if this trend continues, it presents a direct threat to the long-term independence of civil servants in the United States and opens the way for ideologically driven individuals and interest groups to again gain control over public agencies.

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