Every 4 years there is a new administration in the White House. How can meaningful progress be made with such frequent changes in staff? Same goes for state level administration.
In: Economics
The Civil Service, for the most part, are just hired workers who handle the day-to-day running of the government. They cannot set policy -they are agents, not deciders- but they also aren’t subject to elections or appointment. And so even when elected officials change, these people just keep on doing their jobs.
These agencies also make plans and form teams to handle changes in government. There are things they can’t do for a few days, but they use these procedures to minimize the impact, and make sure that when the incoming officials are ready to take up their new duties, this goes smoothly.
This is the so-called “deep state”. Some radical movements nowadays have tried to attach conspiracy theories to the deep state, which is generally pretty absurd. What I’ve outlined here is what the deep atate actually is, what it does, and why it’s important. It keeps the lights on and the trains running even when leadership is changing. It works pretty well.
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