Any scholar will find difficult, if not impossible,
to control all the variables that may influence the
politicization of the civil service. In most of the
cases, sociology will be called upon to support
political science research. In particular, the effect
of politicization on civil servants’ switch-over to
private enterprise needs to be studied, because in
some countries, such as France, Japan and the
United States, access to senior positions in the
administration allows civil servants later to
become CEOs of major private corporations.
However, two variables seem especially
important: on the one hand, the strength of the
administrative tradition, which can be measured
by civil servants’ degree of professional independence or ‘corporatism’ and, on the other
hand, civil servants‘ involvement in political
life, which can be measured by their capacity for
collective mobilization or their presence within
political parties. From these two dimensions, a
diagram of politicization in the main developed
countries can be drawn up (Figure 24.1) showing
that political involvement of civil servants can
very well go hand in hand with a strong administrative tradition (France, Germany, Spain) and
that the lack of a strong professional culture does
not necessarily imply any particular partisan
involvement (the United States). It should especially be noted that there is no ‘European model‘
and that the models of politicization do not fit
into simple dichotornies, which, for instance,
would divide countries of the northem hemisphere from the south, or federal countries from
unitary countries.