The Evolving Physiology of Government: Canadian Public Administration in Transition

Chapter Three: The Origins of Merit in Canada

74 Merit has been central to human resource practices in Western democracies for over one hundred years. While many of the public service commissions that traditionally guarded merit have been weakened or dismantled over the past two decades, all governments still retain various forms of merit protection in the form of independent boards that hear appeals and do audits, as well as through legislation that upholds the basic principles of merit appointment (Chapman, 2004; Pfiffner and Brook, 2000). As recently as the passage of the new Public Service Employment Act in 2003, Treasury Board President Lucienne Robillard came to the defence of merit, noting, “Claims that we are watering down merit are clearly unfounded. While we are proposing greater flexibility in staffing, we are balancing them with strong safeguards to uphold the merit principle” (Canada, House of Commons, 14 February 2003). This durability of merit in all human resource regimes is partly a historic legacy and partly a reflection of the basic needs for independence in the appointment of public servants. In its earlier guise, merit was a rallying cry to defeat patronage. In the nineteenth-century battle against patronage, merit appointment represented a host of important public administration values such as professionalism, neutral competence, independent judgment, and a willingness to resist political interference and inappropriate pressure. Appointment based on merit in the nineteenth century was seen as a reform that would take the corrupt patronage-riddled bureaucracy and transform it into a dedicated THE ORIGINS OF MERIT IN CANADA1 Ken Rasmussen and Luc Juillet 3 The Origins of Merit in Canada 75 professional body mindful of the public interest and capable of both supporting government decision-making and informing ministers about their proper roles and responsibilities within the constitutional system. However, as soon as patronage was defeated, the definition of merit became contested. Merit proved to be an elusive goal, never defined in legislation until the most recent reforms of 2003 and only vaguely in that act. Merit was constantly redefined to satisfy various political concerns and constituencies. While merit proved to be a central ideal in defeating patronage and creating the image of a modern professional public service, the constant redefinitions and the surrounding processes that established merit quickly resulted in a “merit system” that was seen as an impediment that stood in the way of one or more visions of a more democratic, efficient, or representative public service. Despite being regularly ignored, redefined, and subsumed under other concepts, merit retains a powerful aura. As such, few politicians or governments are willing to challenge its centrality in the human resource regimes of government, even though it is currently little more than a synonym for process. What most contemporary discussions of merit lack is the earlier notion of merit as an ideal that encompasses not only ability but also behaviours that emerge from individuals appointed by merit through an independent process. The original meaning of merit implied a form of subjective responsibility, loyalty, and conscience for the public good (Mosher, 1968: 10). In this ideal form, merit embodied an ethic of service, duty, and professional responsibility for the public interest. As Ingraham (2006: 487) notes, “Merit is related to values, ideals, and ethics, to the appropriate role of the civil service in a democracy and thus to governance in a democratic society.” Reform advocates have used the ideal of merit appointment to promote broader notions of merit as an efficient, effective, and dedicated public service that serves the public interest in opposition to the patronage bureaucracy that was indolent, overstaffed, partisan, and corrupt while serving the interests of political parties. In this early battle, merit had a sanctified halo and carried very large expectations as to what it would accomplish when 76 Contemporary Issues and Challenges it was enshrined as the principle used as the basis for public service. Yet, something has happened along the way in which few see merit as necessary to the creation of an entire ethic and set of behaviours associated with the public service as a calling or vocation. When the ideal became a system, it had to contend with multiple and competing values associated with different definitions of merit (Best, 1982). As such, it became progressively weighed down by various definitions to the point where merit and process became synonymous. This chapter examines the origins...