The civils sevants: A very brief reference
We can define a civil servant as a government employee; as a public servant as well. That is to say, a civilian public sector employee working for a government department or agency. Following the Collins English Dictionary we can say that a civil servant is a person who is part of the service responsible for the public administration of the government of a country, called civil service.
In my opinion civil servant are, at least, as old as the State. So, when a State exists, a civil service exists. This is true, for example, in the case of the Roman Empire. There were different kinds of civil servants. In the beginning, the civil servant were an elite, because of they could read and had the knowledge as well. For example, the imperial officials in the Roman Empire were the ones who managed the Empire. In two words, they were in charge of the government. They were appointed by the emperor for an indefinite period and his authority depended on what this would command them. We can cite the most important civil servants called “prefectus”. There were different kinds of them: The praetorian prefectus who was the head of the Guard; the prefectus urbi who was the representative of the emperor in the city and the police chief as well; the prefectus vigilium who took care of public order, and the prefectus annonae who handled the supplies. We can cite the prosecutors too, lower-ranking than the prefectus, who are charged with the most varied functions.
The same can be applied to another great old-time civilization: China.
Until the Modern Age civil servants was a special part of the society, erudite an learned people who executed the emperors and king’s orders and the best of them advised their governing class. Not everyone could be civil servant. Generally speaking, they had to be part of the nobility or the clergy, and they must be males. Women weren’t allowed as civil servants.
Nowadays, times has changed, and everybody can be civil servant (perhaps, today some of us want to be one of them). I will continue in another post, if it’s possible.