How Democratic Backsliding Shapes the Entry, Non‐Entry, and Waiting of Potential Civil Servants

ABSTRACT Democratic backsliding is coupled with politicians' undermining of the civil service's professionalism and commitment to liberal democratic values. Existing research has examined civil servants' responses. Nonetheless, politicians' attacks on democracy and the bureaucracy also affect potential recruits' career choices. Based on existing research and in‐depth interviews in Israel, we extend Hirschman's model to develop an abductive mirror‐image typology of the narratives deployed by potential recruits and civil servants to explain their career choices amid democratic backsliding. We find that, unlike civil servants who often choose to stay and fight, those outside the civil service either forgo entering it or wait for a trustworthy government. Additionally, we find tentative associations between the variation in interviewees' narrations of their career choices and their beliefs about the scope of bureaucratic politicization, the role of civil servants vis‐à‐vis politicians, and their attachment to the nation.