In Yes, Minister Humphrey is an example of a very capable person but it’s a mistake to assume that merit is the only thing that matters. Humprey frequently tells Bernard that loyality to the bureaucracy is very important for his career. The episode about putting more woman at the head of the service also talks about a bunch of reasons why in that system it’s not easy to simply put a person purely on merit at the top.
When it comes to instiutations like British ministeries that are fairly independed and intransparent about how they work it’s hard to tell from the outside how important loyality and how important ability happens to be.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yes_Minister
In Yes, Minister Humphrey is an example of a very capable person but it’s a mistake to assume that merit is the only thing that matters. Humprey frequently tells Bernard that loyality to the bureaucracy is very important for his career. The episode about putting more woman at the head of the service also talks about a bunch of reasons why in that system it’s not easy to simply put a person purely on merit at the top.
When it comes to instiutations like British ministeries that are fairly independed and intransparent about how they work it’s hard to tell from the outside how important loyality and how important ability happens to be.