The necessary and complex balance between the different systems for selecting civil servants

Abstract

Objectives: To study the merit-based and political appointment as systems of access to the civil service, highlighting the advantages and challenges that they represent for the Administration within the framework of a democratic rule of law and the principles that are proper to it. Methodology: Analysis of national and international authors and normative sources, as well as communications from international organizations that have studied the matter. Results: To demonstrate the relationship that exists between the administration and politics as a basis for evaluating the legitimacy of public officials and their role as decision-makers or executors of public policies, which makes a balance necessary in the implementation of both systems. Conclusions: The merit system is a mechanism that has permeated most Latin American constitutions, promoting objectivity, rationality, and equality in access to public office by evaluating the qualities of the candidates and not the candidates as subjects close to the appointee. The political appointment should be an exception to the rule of merit-based appointment, which, far from promoting corruption or clientelism, should be used to improve public management and the democratic nature of the state.