Yesterday Pennsylvania held a primary election. Students of government usually make a distinction between people who make policy (legislatures, council members, school boards), people who adjudicate issues (courts) and people who carry out policy (the bureaucracy).
\After the Progressive reforms of a century ago, the people who carry out the policy were usually considered “civil servants” who got their jobs because of qualifications rather than political affiliations. They took civil service exams. They had expertise. They weren’t fired when the policy-makers were defeated at the polls.
In Pennsylvania, however, we seemed to have ignored the changes that other states made decades ago. We still elect local tax collectors, people who don’t make policy but collect local taxes. (And yes, they get a cut.) We elect a Clerk of Courts. We elect a Recorder of Deeds. A Sheriff. A Register of Wills. And, of course, a Prothonotary. Probably only one in fifty Pennsylvanians even knows what a Prothonotary does, let alone can spell it. Nonetheless, every four years, by god, we voters are asked to elect one.
We need to make some major changes, and soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment