(A)Political administration? The public manager’s portrait and selection factors

Abstract This article addresses the issue of how political and administrative actors relate to each other, focusing on the selection of Senior Civil Servants as key actors to implement public policies. A literature review and documental analysis were carried out, and an on-line questionnaire was applied to Senior Civil Servants in managerial positions in Portugal between 2004 and 2011 (n = 964). The results show that, in all cases, the p-value was equal or less than .05 (p ≤ .05). The analysis allowed us to confirm two main criteria used for the selection of Senior Civil Servants (political and professional) and their respective factors. Despite indicating that the political criterion somehow plays a role in the selection of public officials in Portugal, the study could not confirm the hypothesis that political factors are predominant when hiring senior civil servants in the country.