- What is a public servant?
- Your relationship with governments
- The public servants par excellence: politicians
We explain what a public servant is and what is its relationship with governments. In addition, the public servants par excellence.
What is a public servant?
A public servant is the person who is in charge of carrying out a task in order to generate well-being among society. With this we do not affirm that your work is ad honorem, but that regardless of the salary perceived, its main characteristic is that its task is not intended for private activity but at the service of the society.
Public servants are working at the service of the Condition, generally in the public administration. As we can see, civil servants are a variant of public servants, but not every public servant is an civil servant. For example, a firefighter is a public servant, since his work implies a great contribution to the well-being of society.
One of the traits that should stand out most of a public servant is his ethics, since the consequences of their actions usually reach a larger group of society. To this is added the social prestige they have, since in many cases they tend to manage state economic funds (therefore they are the result of the contribution of all the citizens), in addition to the fact that they usually represent institutions with a long tradition.
The regulation of public servants is a state matter, generally contained within the constitution of each country, accompanied by other laws smaller in scope.
Your relationship with governments
The size and quality of public services is not something that is defined in advance, but will depend on the size of the state apparatus and the funds available. The countries that defend the policies of a Welfare state, typical of European countries during the 70s, and taken up by some Latin American countries, tend to have a large number of services and public servants, since a good part of social services is monopolized by the State.
The education Public hospitals and public hospitals, for example, are bastions of the welfare state. With this we are not affirming that a doctor in a private clinic is not a public servant, but there are differences. For example, enter a service security private and state police. Although both can be considered public servants, the responsibility level having a police force is much higher.
One of the problems with which governments count neoliberals it is the reduction of funds destined to public servants, mainly to the administrative and bureaucratic sector. This «reduction of the State», understood as a process needed to remove expenses unnecessary, entails the relegation of public functions to private sectors. This is one of the strong criticisms of the sectors most defenders of the welfare state, arguing that it is nothing more than a way of favoring the richest sectors of society.
The public servants par excellence: politicians
A politician develops his task to achieve a common good.
The politics historically it has been considered one of the main ways of serving society. In fact, it is the end in itself of politics. This finds its maximum point of expression in the democracies and not in other political systems, since during the monarchical and totalitarian governments the rulers did not have any responsibility explicit with those people they represented, but vice versa.
Every person dedicated to politics must have the goal of developing his task to achieve a common good, beyond prestige and personal ambitions. The need for a conduct Flawless and rigorous ethics are usually required of the political class, since they are the representatives of the popular wills. However, we all know that this rarely happens.
Different professionals of the most diverse areas have addressed the issue of politicians as public servants, such as Machiavelli or Max Weber. While the first of these authors have insisted on the need to make the concept of vocation Politics, Max Weber specialized in the influence of Western rationalization on politics. These are just two examples of a large number of intellectuals who have addressed this problem.