II. Письменно своими словами изложите основное содержание

текста на русском языке.

III. Задайте к тексту 6 – 7 вопросов разного типа.

THE BRITISH CIVIL SERVICE

(1) The day-to-day running of the British government and implementation of its policy continue to be in the hands of the same people that were there with the previous government – the civil servants. Governments come and go, but the civil service remains. A change of minister, for whatever reason, does not involve the change of staff. The functions of the civil servants remain the same whichever political party is in power. The civil service is a permanent body of officials that keeps the wheel of the government turning. Execution of public policy depends on the work of hundreds of thousands of public servants going daily to their offices. It is no accident that the most senior civil servant in a government department in Great Britain has the title of “Permanent Secretary”. Unlike politicians, civil servants, even of the highest rank, are unknown to the larger public. There are not very many people in Great Britain who, if you asked them, could give you the names of the present head of the home civil service or the present Secretary to the Cabinet (who runs the Cabinet Office); still fewer know the names of more than one of the present permanent secretaries.

(2) For those in Britain who belong to it, the civil service is a career. Its most senior positions are usually filled by people who have been working in it for twenty years or more. These people get a high salary (higher than their ministers), have absolute job security (unlike their ministers) and stand a good chance of being awarded an official honour. By comparison, ministers, even those who have been in the same department for several years, are still new to the job. Moreover, civil servants know the secrets of the previous government which the present minister is unaware of. For all these reasons, it is often possible for top civil servants to exercise quite a lot of control over their ministers, and it is sometimes said that it is they, and not their ministers, who really govern the country. There is undoubtedly some truth in this opinion.

(3) However, the British civil service has deserved its reputation largely for the absolute political impartiality. Many ministers have remarked on the struggle for power between them and their top civil servants, but very few have ever complained of any political inclinations. Top civil servants know that their power depends on their staying out of politics and on their being absolutely loyal to their present minister.

(4) Modern criticism of the civil service does not question its loyalty but its efficiency. Despite reforms, top rank of the civil service is still largely made up of people from the same narrow section of society – people who have been to public school and then to Oxford or Cambridge, where they studied subjects such as history or classical languages. Therefore they are often criticized for not having enough expertise in matters such as economics or technology, and for living too much in its own closed world, cut off from the concerns of most people in society. In the late twentieth century, ministers try to overcome these apparent deficiencies by appointing experts from outside the civil service to work on various projects and by having their own political advisers working alongside (or some would say, in competition with) their civil servants.

Примечание:

“Permanent Secretary” постоянный заместитель министра (непосредст

венно руководит деятельностью аппарата

министров)

Secretary of the Cabinet ceкретарь кабинета (государственный служащий

высокого ранга; отвечает за подготовку заседний

кабинета [Cabinet] и оформление протоколов

заседаний; назначается премьер - министром)

Cabinet Office секретариат кабинета министров (готовит мате

риалы к заседанию кабинета [ Cabinet], cледит за

выполнением его решений и координирует

работу его комитетов)

stand a good chance of иметь все шансы на …..

impartiality (n) беспристрастность, невмешательство

remark on высказываться

job security обеспеченность работой, гарантия занятости

expertise (n) компетентность, квалификация, опыт

UNIT FOUR