2010 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

The Political Appointment System and the Relationship between Politics and Administration in the Civil Service from Comparative Perspective

Research Project

Project/Area Number	21730124
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Research Field	Politics
Research Institution	Tokai University
Principal Investigator	IZUMO Akiko Tokai University, 政治経済学部, 講師 (10510076)
Project Period (FY)	2009 – 2010
Keywords	資格任用 / 人事行政 / 執政の補佐機構 / キャビネ / 上級公務員制度 / 民主的統制 / 政と官 / 公務員の政治的応答性
Research Abstract	The concept of political appointment has been diverted among countries, but it is a surely perceptive to see a relationship between politics and administration. This research defines the concept of political appointment in the United States and France analyzing the extent of the statutory and practical regulations to the appointment. The political appointment literally means that officials are appointed only because of political loyalty to the appointing officer without regulations. In this research, it is revealed that these pure kinds of appointment are rather exception in two countries, and there are the mechanisms to regulate the appointment. The mechanism differs in these two, but there are some similarities in the followings: the approval by the congress, qualitative and quantitative regulation by the central personnel management institution, and practical regulation by bureaucratic network. The concept of political appointment is layered along with the regulation shading, and this definition suggests the issues of the civil service reform in Japan.