Deep State
Yes . . . there is a deep state. It is not the one envisioned in the fever swamps of the the right, but it is there. If you want to know how it works, dig up episodes of that wonderful British series “Yes, Minister”. Politicians come and go; bureaucracy endures.
According to the most acute analyst I know, Francis Fukuyama, full blown democracy requires (1) rule of law, (2) consent of the governed, and (3) a professional bureaucracy to administer the laws enacted by legislatures. For the first 125+ years of our polity, we did not have a professional bureaucracy. We had the so-called spoils system. Each new administration, at all levels of government, replaced government workers with its own partisans. Their primary job description was to work for the reelection of the politician who gave them the job.
Civil Service reform began gradually at the turn of the 20th century. The objective was that government employees would be hired and promoted on the basis of professional qualification and merit. Civil servants were prohibited from engaging in partisan politics and protected from political retribution. The result wasn’t perfect, but it worked reasonably well.
As will all policy solutions, this one had unintended consequences. Government employees have evolved into their own special interest group. It began in the JFK administration when unionization was permitted. The vast majority of government employees now belong to unions, whose core mission is obtaining maximum pay, maximum security, maximum benefits and minimum work stress for their members.
The corrupt cycle works like this. Politicians negotiate with union leaders about pay, benefits and working conditions. Those paying the bill (tax payers) are not at the negotiating table. Automatic collection of union dues is a feature of almost all such contracts. The resulting revenue stream guarantees a comfortable life for union officials and a honey pot of contributions to politicians who are perceived to be friends of union labor. Since Democrats are the party which believes in a higher level of government involvement in the economy, virtually all the contributions go to Democratic politicians. When Democrats decry the malign influence of money in politics, they are not referring to their largest source of money — public sector unions.
This cycle should be broken. Automatic collection of dues should be outlawed. Unions should be forced to sell their services to members who would be free to pay or withhold dues as they see fit. No union should be allowed to make a contribution to the campaign of any official who will have a vote on its contract. Everything possible should be done to create a civil service profession that hires and promotes based on merit; that is scrupulously non-partisan; and that carries out the laws passed by legislatures regardless of the political views of its members.
