Frances Gottfried offers a thorough-going critique of municipal civil service systems and the principles of meritocracy that underlie them, focusing especially on the social inequities and entrenchment of power that continue to bedevil the public sector. Beginning with an examination of the principles and history of the merit system, the author challenges the assumption that a real meritocracy does in fact exist. She looks at current practices and procedures in civil service, with particular attention to the decision-making process. She explores the role of the rigid credentialling system...