By the time of the Reagan administration, that figure had climbed to 77 percent. And while career civil servants may gather the information to meet the information requests, they show a reasonable reluctance to work with the press and interest groups on partisan issues, which leaves those duties in the rightful hands of political appointees. Civil servants are supposed to be politically neutral in their dealings, and they must maintain this to keep their jobs through often-dramatic changes in Washington s political climate. He s right. Heritage strongly backed President Clinton in 1994 when Republicans in Congress wrongly attempted to curtail his political appointments, and we continue to back the right of any president, Democrat or Republican, to appoint his own people.
Political appointees are essential to effective government.
Those who want to cut the number of political appointees must be prepared to cut the size of government. Otherwise, we ll be left with an ever-expanding tribe of bureaucratic Indians ranging far and wide without direction from their presidentially appointed Chiefs. In a democratic order, government is to be accountable to the governed. Robert Maranto teaches political science at Villanova University, and Robert Moffit is director of domestic policy studies at the Heritage Foundation.