Civil Service Reform

In 1996, the State of Georgia passed the Merit System Reform Act, which made dramatic changes to the traditional civil service system in the state. These reforms included placing all newly hired civil servants in positions that were “at will” and greatly decentralized responsibility for recruitment and classification to individual operating agencies. The role of the central personnel office changed from that of a regulating agency ensuring that merit principles were followed to a consulting service organization designed to encourage best practices. This article examines these changes as manifestations of a “managerialist” ideology more concerned with empowering managers for the sake of greater efficiency than with protecting individual employee rights.