As Leaks Multiply, Fears of a ‘Deep State’ in America
While I think the stated concern about a &#x27;deep state&#x27; is rather exaggerated, I think there is a legitimate concern about friction between the executive and the bureaucracy.  There is broad tradition of non-partisan civil service taking orders from the partisan government of the day across the Western world, and it exists for two very good reasons: If the civil service is partisan, worthy public servants will lose their positions upon any change in government; and if the civil service is partisan, governments will not trust them.<p>We saw this in Canada under the Harper government in the early part of this decade, with civil servants actively undermining the government and the government retaliating with gag orders; it didn&#x27;t take long before the government, knowing that any research they asked for would be leaked in the most damaging way possible, abandoned evidence-based governing in favour of seat-of-the-pants policy-making.<p>Now, what took a decade in Canada seems to have happened in a matter of weeks in Washington; but the fact remains that when the civil service is overtly opposed to their political masters, good government becomes impossible.  It&#x27;s one thing to have a bungling fool in charge of the ship of state; it&#x27;s quite another to have a bungling fool who knows his crew are in the process of staging a mutiny.