Welcome to the Gray Center’s Policy Brief Series, a collection of short articles on timely topics related to the administrative state. The Gray Center is an open forum for vibrant debate, so the Center takes no institutional positions on the issues discussed in the papers that it publishes or the conferences that it organizes. All views expressed in Policy Briefs and other materials reflect only the views of the authors.

August 12, 2020

Civil Service: Pulling In or Pushing Away
Sally Katzen, Professor of Practice and Distinguished Scholar in Residence at NYU School of Law, and Senior Distinguished Fellow at the C. Boyden Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State

Executive Summary: Tension between political appointees and career civil servants is not a new phenomenon, but it is more fraught now, with unfortunate adverse consequences for the people involved and for our country. Bureaucrat bashing or ignoring those with expertise and experience is destructive to our government; far better to listen to what they have to contribute and then make your own decision. Otherwise, the public will suffer.