This article examines the model (models) of civil service fundamental to Lithuania‘s public policy on civil service after 2004, i.e., after joining the EU. Here the model is considered as a certain description or concept of state civil service or, more accurately, a certain systematic vision or representation of civil service. The article discusses the approaches used for classifying civil service systems and shows the dichotomous understanding of position or career-based civil service systems as groundless. It goes on to describe the premises and opportunities for ―career civil service‖ in Lithuania. Path dependence in the process of civil service reforms in Lithuania and the not entirely unambiguous influence of the EU are described concisely. The discussion on the latest plans for civil service reforms ascertains that managerial priorities predominate therein. Meanwhile these plans ignore the increasingly obvious alienation between civil service and the public-atlarge in Lithuania and the necessity for an orientation towards the principles and priorities of participatory governance alongside the managerial priorities.