How are top officials hybrid management models present across political-administrative systems?

Abstract

Bureaucracy is nowadays often considered a synonymous of inefficiency, ineffectiveness, impersonality, stiffness, uselessness, wastefulness and even corruption. Nevertheless, it is true that bureaucracy is an essential structure for the implementation of public policies. Authors like Mozzicafreddo, Peters, Aberbach, Chevalier, and others, consider that relations between public officials (permanently appointed) and politicians (elected for a limited time) are formally “crystal”, but in practice, reality has proven to be more complex. Top public officials are in a hybrid place some elsewhere between political and administrative spheres, which reanimates the long-lasting discussion on how senior civil servants should be selected. This paper intends to contribute to a more clarified discussion on how top officials hybrid management models can, or not, be a good practice, taking into consideration different case studies on administrative culture.