This book offers an informed and controversial examination of the ethics of higher civil servants in Britain and the ways in which they have been undermined by recent developments in public administration. The Ideal of Public Service explores some of the key contributions to the development of ideas about public service in British central administration and provides a discussion of recent trends in administrative practice in the United Kingdom. Combining political theory and an analysis of the history and development of the civil service, this timely book will be of strong interest to those researching British Politics, Governance and Public Policy