"Others suggest that career State Department employees are increasingly fearful of their politically appointed bosses and colleagues, regardless of whether they were chosen by Democratic or Republican administrations. “There is a subtext of politics,” said Susan Johnson, president of the American Foreign Service Association (AFSA). “Especially for senior-level people, everything has become more politicized.” Rise of the ‘politically appointed’ During the past 40 years, she said, there has been an explosion in the number of leadership-level positions at the State Department and in the number of those positions filled by “politically appointed” individuals. In 1975, Foggy Bottom had 18 deputy secretary, undersecretary, assistant secretary and “counselor of the department” positions. Eleven — roughly 61 percent — were filled by career foreign service employees. The other seven posts went to political appointees. As of last year, according to data compiled by AFSA, the number of leadership positions had nearly doubled to 36, with the strong majority — roughly 67 percent — now filled by political appointees. The result, said Mrs. Johnson, is “a lot more political input and involvement in policy decision-making and policy implementation because there are many more political appointees at increasingly lower levels.” “You can expect that’s going to change the dynamic and the calculus of what kind of behavior you need to exhibit to get these positions,” she said. “If the politically appointed people are going to be making the decisions, they’re likely to pick people they know, and the people they know tend to be people who serve in Washington rather than in posts around the world." - Guy Taylor writing for The Washington Times washingtontimes/news/2013/jun/26/state-department-has-a-dearth-of-diplomats-to-awar/?page=all#pagebreak
Posted on: Tue, 02 Jul 2013 15:50:08 +0000
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