About civil servants and their loyalty
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Rene ten Bos
About civil servants and their loyalty
Nov 3, '23 17:00
Officials recently criticized government policy. That caused a lot of unrest. But sometimes official disobedience is actually a blessing, writes philosopher René ten Bos.
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Criticism by officials for raising the Israeli flag in front of the ministry. ANP/Robin Utrecht
“Officials who know color get nervous,” the FD headlined this week (FD November 1). Officials who wanted to distance themselves from cabinet policy due to the war between Israel and Hamas caused quite a bit of unrest in public administration circles.
Of course, as politicians indicated, it is not the intention that officials themselves determine the policy. This is of course reserved for politicians, because we, as a people, can vote them out if they make the wrong choices in our eyes.
In many ways, this criticism is correct. The state monster, as Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) already knew, must speak with one mouth, otherwise it loses authority. No one benefits from that. In fact, that could ultimately lead to civil war. Officials — from minister to office clerk — should therefore keep any dissent to themselves. They are part of the government apparatus and that device is going to crack like discord and dissensus splash into society. The apparatus, as well as society, is of no use to officials who value their own conscience more than the higher purpose they serve: above all, to maintain order and peace in that society. They are part of the executive body and that should remain pure.
'Our opinion about civil servants is apparently not always consistent'
Nevertheless, the issue is difficult. First example: at the time of the pandemic, I once spoke to GGD epidemiologists who had doubts about the vaccination policy and yet loyally implemented that policy. This loyalty requirement was felt even more strongly because the state and society felt that there was a huge health crisis. At the time of such a crisis, you are not waiting for executors who want to tamper with the policy they have elected.
Second example: how happy were we not when, during the benefits crisis, there was at least a few who took responsibility and did not hide behind their functional liability? Did we secretly not want to see more of these state servants? Wouldn't citizens occasionally be helped by such moral belching?
Our opinion about civil servants is apparently not always consistent. Certainly, I understand the public administration expert who says that, above all, those executors should be loyal. But at the same time, I also hope that the device does not function entirely as a machine and occasionally falters, precisely because of the turmoil in the individual official's head.
René ten Bos is professor of philosophy at Radboud University Nijmegen.
Read the full article: https://fd.nl/opinie/1494964/over-ambtenaren-en-hun-loyaliteit
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