PROFESSIONAL TRAINING AND POLICY DOMINANCE IN THE HIGHER CIVIL SERVICE

This paper explores the influence of professionalization on the political attitudes of federal executives and suggests that certain minimum criteria must be met for professional background to have an impact on public policy decisionmaking. Data collected from the federal executive population show that at least one criterion is largely met. However, the case for conditions specified by other criteria is much weaker. Consequently, policy dominance by bureaucratic professionals appears to be less a threat than is commonly believed.