ROZLICZALNOŚĆ SŁUŻBY CYWILNEJ
CIVIL SERVICE ACCOUNTABILITY

AN ANALYSIS OF THE CONCEPT IN THE CONTEXT OF PRE-WAR POLISH REGULATIONS CONCERNING CIVIL SERVICE

Summary/Abstract: Fundamental Polish pre-war regulations pertaining to civil service (i.e. the 1918 Regency Council Rescript and 1922 Law on Civil Service) represent fairly comprehensive pieces of legislation which also somehow reflect the concept of civil service accountability. The reflection they offered, however, is far from representing a complete model of accountability as they contain only a handful of criteria useful for the identification of quality expected from civil service performance. Yet, even these limited regulations can be considered effective anchors for construing the concept of civil service accountability with the intentionally left loopholes to be filled in by the political (i.e. non-civil service) corps of governmental offices. The identified criteria of civil service quality can be interpreted as representing determinants of accountability identified in the Friedrich-Finer Debate. In the regulations concerned, Friedrichian determinants (i. e. these concerned with the systemic delineation of competences) are less pronounced than the Finerian ones (concerned with the axiological content of accountability). When compared with the present 2008 Civil Law, the pre-war regulations provided for far more regulatory determinants of accountability. The resulting normative intensiveness produced a stronger anchor for civil service accountability (and, at the same time, independence) than the one now in force.

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