Keith Legg’s research while affiliated with University of Florida and other places

... 6 To understand how MR fosters incentive misalignment and impartiality, it is useful to first examine the 'at-will' recruitment model, where political actors have considerable discretion in hiring and firing bureaucrats. Research suggests that such a recruitment modus operandi establishes a highly personalised and affective relationship between the appointee and the politician with appointing powers from the very beginning of the appointee's career (Bearfield, 2009;Lemarchand and Legg, 1972). The politician's control over employmenta valuable resource as it confers substantive benefits upon the appointeecreates a pronounced imbalance in status and obligations between the two parties (Lemarchand and Legg, 1972, 152). ...

Reference:

On mechanisms of meritocratic recruitment: competence and impartiality