Between the 1870s and early 1900s, certain U.S. government agencies achieved world-class competence by professionalizing around specific technical disciplines. Bureaus within the USDA and the Public Health Service recruited top experts, organized around clear missions, and commanded respect from both Congress and international peers.
The speaker argues that the Pendleton Act of 1883 is over-emphasized in the history of civil service. True competence was driven by the culture, mission, and organizational design of individual agencies, not by the slow and limited implementation of a single law focused on merit-based exams.
A 'functional reorganization' movement from the 1930s-1950s restructured federal agencies, shifting them from discipline-focused units (e.g., Bureau of Entomology) to ones with centralized functional roles (e.g., HR, finance). This change broke up cohesive expert teams and made it harder to recruit and retain top technical talent.
The professionalization of the U.S. Post Office demonstrates how a competent bureaucracy can drive economic transformation. By creating a national parcel and magazine delivery network, it enabled the rise of mail-order catalogs like Sears and Roebuck, creating a mass market and connecting rural America to the modern economy.
Despite current challenges, there is a growing movement focused on improving government competence. This is visible in philanthropic efforts like the $100M Recoding America Fund, practical administrative fixes like simplifying federal resumes on USAJOBS, and a broader intellectual interest in 'state capacity' among a new generation of policy professionals.
Keep pulling the thread on Kevin Havighurst.