2016考研英語閱讀題源經濟學人文章：提升公務員工作動力

考研英語來源：經濟學人 2015-06-03　

每年考研英語閱讀篇章很多都取材于經濟學人，因此2016年考研復習之初，一定要從基礎打好，穩扎穩打。下面分享《經濟學人》文章，希望大家能夠多看、多練，提升閱讀能力!

Reforming Leviathan

處于改革浪潮中的龐大機構

Mandarin lessons

政府官員的經驗之談

Governments need to rethink how they reward andmotivate civil servants

政府需要重新思考如何去獎勵和提升公務員的工作動力。

THE French call them hauts fonctionnaires, theGermans Beamte im h?heren Dienst and the British, somewhat more economically, know themas “mandarins”. The senior echelons of civil services are a powerful arm of the state. Theyimplement the reforms dreamed up by politicians, and design public services ranging fromwelfare systems to prisons. Compared with private-sector bosses, the bureaucrats who managethe public sector tend to be less well paid but have more cushioned lives, with more securejobs and far less pressure to improve productivity. Now the mandarins face change.

法語中稱呼他們為官方人員，德語叫做高級公務員，英國則各位簡短稱呼公務員為政界要員。公務員的高層人員是國家的一個強大的臂膀。他們實現政客對于改革的設想，并構思計劃公共服務，涵蓋面從福利制度到監獄。與私營部門的老板相比，負責管理公共部門的官員往往不太高薪，但擁有更多的緩沖生活，更安全的工作，對于提高工作效率方面，其承受的壓力遠不如私營老板。現在的政府高級官員們面臨著改變。

There has long been taxpayer fury when big projects go awry. Berlin's new airport is threeyears overdue and predicted to cost 6 billion (8.1 billion), three times the original estimate.But voters, and thus politicians, are especially intolerant of civil-service inefficiency nowadays.One prompt is austerity. Another is technology, which is changing not only how public servicesare delivered—think of “massively open online courses” in education—but also the way they canbe measured. Social networks enable users to grumble about hospital waiting-times andmathematics results. Perhaps the biggest pressure is the passing of time: private-sectorworkers are incredulous as to why civil servants should escape the creative destruction thathas changed other offices around the world.

長期以來，大項目出差錯時納稅人會因而感到十分憤怒。柏林新機場建設已有三年逾期，并且預計耗資60億歐元(81億人民幣)，三倍于原來的預算。但在現今，選民和政客尤其無法忍受公務員服務效率低下。其中一個提示便是緊縮政策。另一個則是技術，這不僅正在改變公共服務的提供方式—思考“大規模開放式在線課程”的教育—但同時也是在思考他們可以被評估的方式。社交網絡讓用戶有機會抱怨醫院候診室漫長的等待時間和自己的數學成績。或許最大的壓力是時間的流逝：私營部門的工作人員對于為何公務員要逃避已經改變了全球政府各部的創造性破壞表示質疑。

The reform of the public sector is a huge project, but people are at the centre of it.Government is a service industry, and there is a basic talent problem. A few civil services—Singapore's is the obvious example—compete with the private sector for the bestgraduates. But elsewhere even elite departments, such as the US Treasury and Britain'sForeign Office, struggle (or lose high-flyers quickly). The mandarins and their political mastersneed to change tack.

公共部門的改革是一項龐大的工程，需要以人民為中心。政府是一個服務行業，并且存在一個基本的人才問題。一些民事部門—如新加坡的民事部門就是一個明顯的例子—他們能夠與私營部門競爭優秀人才。但在其他地方，即使是精英部門，如美國財政部和英國外交部，也同樣存在斗爭(或很快失去極高報負者)。政府官員和他們的政治領導者需要改變策略。

Too many civil servants, especially in continental Europe, swirl around a bureaucraticGormenghast but rarely leave it. Nearly four-fifths of German senior public servants have beenin public administration for more than two decades. The French state under Franois Hollande isgoverned by a caste of unsackable functionaries, resistant to reform. One reason manyofficials become stuck is their generous pension deals: making pensions portable should be apriority. But career structures also must adapt.

太多的公務員，尤其是在歐洲大陸的公務員，他們漩渦在具有官僚政治的古老王國歌門鬼城身旁，但很少會選擇離開它。近五分之四的德國高級公務員已經在公共管理中工作超過二十年。整個法國處于奧朗德狀態，由固若金湯的社會團體所管轄，他們抵制改革。其中一個原因是，很多官員被慷慨的養老金交易卡住：使得養老金可攜帶成為一個必須考慮的優先事項。但是，職業結構也必須作出適當改變。