We define the civil service as a political and administrative institution established to meet the needs in the professional performance of political decisions and providing the daily contact between the society and the political power. The current Russian legislation does not define civil service in terms of current the features of public institutions. This may be the reason why the institutionalization of the civil service in post-Soviet Russia faces difficulties. We see ways to overcome this contradiction, which include the improvement of legislation and implementation to the strategic documents the goals, objectives and performance criteria of civil service institution-building. This goals and objectives should orientate the civil servants to ensure economic growth and improving the quality of citizen’s life. The architecture of the civil service institution was offered, including the legal, institutional and human components. We identified the institutional characteristics and location of this institution in the environment of society. The algorithm of civil service institutional change was clarified, which includes elements such as institutional selection, the definition of institutional norms and institutional effects. The requirements for the assessment of institutional effectiveness were formulated. We proved the necessity to describe the driving forces of civil service development not only by external influences, but also its internal environment. The comparison of this set of statistics with indicators of internal development of the civil service allows concluding about the correlation between the civil service performance on different stages of its institutional transformation and attainment the priorities of the economy and society.