and their rank It is also highly tempting to want to pit civil servants against private
sector workers. But here again it is the profession
that matters more than the legal status of the job,
even if civil servants are generally more culturally liberal and less economically liberal than
private business workers.
Depending on the country, civil servant politicization can also draw support in trade unionism.
Trade union rights are generally acknowledged
in all European countries (except for certain categories such as the military) whereas they are far
more limited in the United States. Trade unionism can, however, vary in degrees of politiciza-
tion as well as in its power of influence over
govemment decisions. It is fairly highly politicized in Austria, France, Germany, Italy and
Spain, where civil service unions are branches of
national unions that group workers by political
affinity. In the UK, trade unionism is, on the
other hand, very profession-oriented and does
not get involved in political debate. In fact,
Margaret Thatcher’s administration took advantage of its weakness to impose considerable
managerial changes in the British civil service.
Another dimension of civil servant politicization has to do with the legal and social possibili-
ties bureaucrats have of getting involved in
political life. Though in the UK senior civil