This book is a study of Canada's Public Service Commission, and of the merit principle it is charged with upholding. It examines the changing concept of merit, as it grew to extend hiring preference to veterans and to francophones; as it first was used to bar women from most public service jobs and later changed course to embrace employment equity for women, Aboriginal people, ethnic minorities and people with disabilities. It looks at centralized vs decentralized control of staffing, and of merit, in the search for greater efficiency in the public service. And at whether merit is ultimately upheld as a value or through a process.

This book is well researched and, for students of public administration, engagingly written. ( )