Civil service

Type: Concept

As of November 2026, Civil service has been mentioned in one podcast episode on The Ezra Klein Show (Dec 2025).

The civil service, also referred to in some countries as the public service, is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil service personnel hired rather than elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leadership. A civil service official, also known as a civil servant or public servant or public employee, is a person employed in the public sector by a government department or agency for public sector undertakings. Civil serv