Politico-administrative configurations and the selection of senior managers: the case of the portuguese public service

Abstract

It is increasingly argued that hybrid models represent the best politico-administrative configurations, since they reconcile the values of trust, merit and neutrality. This combination of values gains special significance when applied to the methods used to select senior public service managers. It is, in fact, these methods that are going to contribute to a large extent to a characterisation of the different types of politico-administrative configurations. Against this background, this article seeks to explore the politico-administrative configuration/model that exists in Portugal. It attempts to identify the idiosyncrasies that do not yet allow it to be classified as hybrid, while proposing leads on ways of promoting improvement in the model and the methods of selecting public service managers.