The article aims to fill the existing contradictions between the primary importance of reforming the state apparatus, on the one hand, the prospect of modern methodology of quantitative analysis, on the other hand, and the observed deficit in domestic practice trials in which the above trends are reflected.

The author introduces previously unpublished in Russian works of foreign authors on the application of quantitative methods for analysis of the transformation of the public service.

The research is based on a combination of an induction method for generating a sequence of operations; a comparative method for selecting control points of studies; a structural-functional method for allocating government functions; statistical methods to identify the size and level of remuneration of civil servants; methods of mathematical analysis (regression and correlation) to identify links between the studied parameters. The chronological framework of the study includes civil service reform in Russia over 1994–2014.

The analyzed public authority includes all federal executive bodies.

The total number of government functions, calculated by the author on his own methodology, is based on studying texts of the instructions for the state bodies.

The size of government employees and average salaries of civil servants are considered in dynamics on the basis of the statistical data and analysis of the regulations.

As a result, the primary study detected a number of trends in the development of public service. In particular, they revealed the existence of a reverse relationship between the total number of public bodies and the number of functions they perform. As a result of the correlation analysis there was revealed non-trivial, but a statistically significant relationship between the number of functions of the state body and the number of functions per employee, as well as between the amount of salaries in the central office of the public authority and its territorial subdivisions.

The application of a regression analysis revealed the existence of a negative relationship between the volume of the functions performed by a public authority, and the size of salaries for its civil servants. These findings can be used in the preparation of legal acts in the development of a public service reform program for the foreseeable future.

The theoretical significance of the research is in the testing of a number of methodological assumptions and in the developing of a coherent program for further researches.