Social Equity in Civil Service Systems

The importance of social equity in the conduct of government and distribution of public services has been advanced by a number of contemporary scholars. Frederickson argues that social equity should have the same standing as the traditional bureaucratic objectives of efficiency and economy in the delivery of public goods and services; his recent work demonstrates the continued significance of equity questions for advancing the application of social equity issues in public administration.1 This study seeks to apply Frederickson's concept of social equity to civil service systems in order to provide some insight into the way different public employment policies affect the distribution of benefits in society and to identify some of the implications of these practices in modem administrative states. The analysis focuses on a comparison of civil servants' status and earnings in the United States and the Nordic country of Sweden. Sweden is often judged the most egalitarian industrialized society and Swedes set a much more rigorous standard for economic equality than do Americans.2 Swedish culture is typified by a consensus-building model3 which is distinct from the more individualistic orientation of society in the United States.