IntroductionThe United States civil service has been the crown jewel of American democracy for over 140 years. Rather, it is a reason to be smarter about design — because a reformed civil service multiplies the effectiveness of every person in it. Reform of the civil service and reform of how the U.S. political system treats the civil service has to happen together. But a civil service that draws from a narrow slice of American life — and offers no real path in or out for everyone else — is a civil service with a weaker claim to democratic legitimacy. We are calling for civil service reform to be paired, deliberately and concurrently, with modernization of these systems.