Merit-Based Appointments Quotes

When the business interests... pushed through the first installment of civil service reform in 1883, they expected that they would be able to control both political parties equally.

One mode of the misappropriation of public funds is avoided when appointments to office, instead of being the rewards of partisan activity, are awarded to those whose efficiency promises a fair return of work for the compensation paid to them.

Honorable party service will certainly not be esteemed by me a disqualification for public office, but it will in no case be allowed to serve as a shield of official negligence, incompetency, or delinquency.

I ask the attention of the public to the paramount necessity of reform in our civil service—a reform not merely as to certain abuses and practices of so-called official patronage which have come to have the sanction of usage in the several Departments of our Government, but a change in the system of appointment itself; a reform that shall be thorough, radical, and complete; a return to the principles and practices of the founders of the Government.

Talents & science are sufficient motives with me in appointments to which they are fitted.

Appointments to office were not to be made nor expected merely as rewards for partisan services, nor merely on the nomination of members of Congress, as being entitled in any respect to the control of such appointments.

And if we are to open employment opportunities in this country for members of all races and creeds, then the Federal Government must set an example. The President himself must set the key example. I am not going to promise a Cabinet post or any other post to any race or ethnic group. That is racism in reverse at its worst. So I do not promise to consider race or religion in my appointments if I am successful. I promise only that I will not consider them.

If nobody is to be appointed because he is your friend or my friend, then nobody should be appointed because he is any other man's friend. The President himself should exercise the same self denial as other officials.

I will not dismiss, or drop from Executive offices, able and faithful political opponents to provide for my own partisans.

Of all officers of government, those in whose appointment any participation of popular suffrage is the most objectionable are judicial officers.

In my experience and observation, senior appointments are rarely based entirely on merit.

It is also absolutely necessary that the examinations should be competitive, and the appointments given to those who are most successful. A mere pass examination never, in the long run, does more than exclude absolute dunces.

I think there is a need to have more women running companies, but you can't... appoint women just to appoint women, just to satisfy a particular condition. What you want more than anything is to develop women in the organisation who will, when they get to the top, be fully capable of delivering and doing the job effectively.

No person connected with me by blood or marriage will be appointed to office.

In former days all appointments to the bureaucracy were made by the political party in power. When that party was defeated, all the bureaucrats in office were immediately thrown out and their places were filled by faithful heelers of the victorious party. It was not a very noble system. It was not conducive to efficient governmental administration…. It did have certain virtues, however. It prevented anyone from becoming a bureaucrat for life and so losing completely the point of view of the man on the street. It also permitted the elected officials to reward their political workers by changing, instead of increasing, the bureaucracy.

… the term "equality" as applied in Mexico has a very restricted meaning in comparison with the meaning given it in other parts of the world. In Mexico it means that all persons, regardless of learning, preparation or ethics, are equally qualified for governmental positions.