scholarly journals Internal ministerial advisory bodies: An attempt to transform governing in the Slovak Republic

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michal Sedlačko ◽  
Katarína Staroňová
Keyword(s):  
Public Administration ◽  
Slovak Republic ◽  
National Policy ◽  
Daily Basis ◽  
Scientific Policy ◽  
Young Males ◽  
Analytical Skills ◽  
Administration Culture ◽  
Scientific Policy Advice ◽  
Advisory Bodies

Abstract In the Slovak Republic, a number of internal ministerial advisory bodies, intended to provide high-quality analyses and evidence based policy making for national policy, have been established over the last two years. We have studied how the rational technocratic model of scientific policy advice as a specific mode of governing, acted out through these new institutional sites of expertise, survives in a highly politicised environment of the Slovak public administration. Central to our study was the reconstruction of an intersubjective account central to the work of organising on which the analytical centres and their staff, as well as their patrons, participate. Complementary to this, we focused on intersubjectively shared elements of the analysts’ community and subculture within the dominant CEE public administration culture. The vision of governing with expertise shared by analytical centres rests on the principles of transparency, orientation on professional merit (primarily econometric, analytical skills), voluntarism, conflict avoidance, political opportunism and institutional autonomy. Analytical centres identify themselves as a distinct professional group – in fact, they form a distinct organisational subculture around traits such as demographic characteristics (predominantly young males with economic or mathematical/IT background), symbols, hierarchies, working culture, humour, as well as artefacts. Analysts see their mission in the provision of impartial, objective analytical evidence for informed decision making, yet they negotiate the boundary between politics and expertise on a daily basis, and, as we found, in numerous aspects of analysts’ work politics cannot be entirely bracketed.

scholarly journals What Does Good Science-Based Advice to Politics Look Like?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Carrier
Keyword(s):  
Social Values ◽  
Moral Values ◽  
Policy Advice ◽  
Social Goals ◽  
Scientific Policy ◽  
Good Science ◽  
The Public ◽  
Scientific Policy Advice ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
Value Free Ideal

AbstractI address options for providing scientific policy advice and explore the relation between scientific knowledge and political, economic and moral values. I argue that such nonepistemic values are essential for establishing the significance of questions and the relevance of evidence, while, on the other hand, such social choices are the prerogative of society. This tension can be resolved by recognizing social values and identifying them as separate premises or as commissions while withholding commitment to them, and by elaborating a plurality of policy packages that envisage the implementation of different social goals. There are limits to upholding the value-free ideal in scientific research. But by following the mentioned strategy, science can give useful policy advice by leaving the value-free ideal largely intact. Such scientific restraint avoids the risk of appearing to illegitimately impose values on the public and could make the advice given more trustworthy.

scholarly journals CHARACTERISTICS AND DEVELOPMENT OF PROGRAM BUDGETING IN SELF-GOVERNING REGION

2015 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 050-055 ◽  
Author(s):  
Viktor Šoltés ◽  
Katarína Štofková
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Public Administration ◽  
Slovak Republic ◽  
Statistical Processing ◽  
Program Budget ◽  
Common Goals ◽  
Methodological Procedures ◽  
Program Budgeting ◽  
Goals And Objectives

The foundation enabling the management of each public administration entity is the budget. Public administration bodies in the Slovak Republic also include self‑governing regions among others. Budgets for these regions are categorized into two parts—revenue and expenditure. Expenditures are broken down into different areas (programs) that pursue common goals and objectives. Programs are usually divided into sub‑programs and components. Part of the program budgeting deployment incorporated issuance of methodological procedures; these described model cases on how to create the program budget. Yet, these procedures are not binding. As a part of the research in 2013, the final accounts of self‑governing regions of the Slovak Republic were analyzed. Division of individual programs and the amount of funding were determined. It is considered appropriate to create some form of general binding regulation defining programs content. This is to be done by considering the clarity and further statistical processing. Given the findings and bearing in mind five years’ worth of program budgeting operation in local government bodies, it is only appropriate to consider the implementation of changes in program budgeting and provide enhanced transparency.

scholarly journals Role of Public Entities in Suitable Provision of Public Services: Case Study from Slovakia

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 143
Author(s):  
Viera Papcunová ◽  
Roman Vavrek ◽  
Marek Dvořák
Keyword(s):  
Public Administration ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Public Services ◽  
Slovak Republic ◽  
The State ◽  
Main Role ◽  
The Public ◽  
State Administration

Local governments in the Slovak Republic are important in public administration and form an important part of the public sector, as they provide various public services. Until 1990, all public services were provided only by the state. The reform of public administration began in 1990 with the decentralization of competencies. Several competencies were transferred to local governments from the state, and thus municipalities began to provide public services that the state previously provided. Registry offices were the first to be acquired by local governments from the state. This study aimed to characterize the transfer of competencies and their financing from state administration to local government using the example of registry offices in the Slovak Republic. In the paper, we evaluated the financing of this competency from 2007 to 2018 at the level of individual regions of the Slovak Republic. The results of the analysis and testing of hypotheses indicated that a higher number of inhabitants in individual regions did not affect the number of actions at these offices, despite the fact that the main role of the registry office is to keep registry books, in which events, such as births, weddings, and deaths, are registered.

scholarly journals SOME ASPECTS OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND PUBLIC BUDGETING OF THE SLOVAK REPUBLIC

2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 55-71
Author(s):  
Jana Džuňová
Keyword(s):  
Public Administration ◽  
Fiscal Decentralization ◽  
Slovak Republic ◽  
Public Budgeting

Article presents characteristics of public administration of the Slovak Republic. The first part of article is focused on structure of public administration, with an emphasis on territorial self-government. The second part of article is focused on the budget of territorial self – government, with some aspects of fiscal decentralization. At the end of issue are presented the main conclusions, with the proposal for improvement.

scholarly journals Zur Rolle der Ökonometrie in der wissenschaftlichen Politikberatung

2013 ◽  
Vol 14 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 3-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gebhard Kirchgässner
Keyword(s):  
Political Institutions ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Policy Advice ◽  
Scientific Policy ◽  
Conflicts Of Interests ◽  
Whole Process ◽  
Open Discussion ◽  
Econometric Analyses ◽  
Scientific Policy Advice ◽  
Empirical Analyses

AbstractBecause economic theory alone does in many situations not provide unambiguous policy advice, most of the time empirical analyses are needed in addition. Thus, today econometric analyses are often parts of reports for political institutions or courts. However, it is not unusual that reports with contradicting evidence are presented by different groups or parties. Using the relation between government size and economic growth as an example, it is shown how such contradicting results are possible even if all scientists involved behave sincerely and adhere to the rules of scientific research. Our second example, studies investigating whether the death penalty serves as a deterrent to homicide, shows that the results of empirical analyses might to a large extent depend on a priori convictions of the scientists. Thus, the process of scientific policy advice has to be organised in a way so that - similar to the genuinely scientific discourse - open discussion and criticisms of methods and results are possible. In order to disclose possible conflicts of interests, this demand transparency of the whole process and, in particular for empirical analyses, that data and programmes are made available for re-estimations.

Competences of Public Administration of the Slovak Republic in the Area of Defense

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 151-165
Author(s):  
Ryszard Szynowski
Keyword(s):  
Public Administration ◽  
Political Power ◽  
Slovak Republic ◽  
The State ◽  
Self Administration ◽  
The Public ◽  
Government Administration ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Many

In one of the many definitions of public administration it was stated that it is the fulfillment of individual and collective needs of citizens, resulting from the co-existence of people in society, realized by the state and its dependent organs. One of the needs of an individual is the need for safety. Ensuring the safety of citizens is realized by the public administration, due to its service to the society as an executive apparatus possessing a democratic mandate of political power, in service of the law created by said organs. A particular role in the area of defense belongs to authoritative administration, which performs tasks including reversing risks and removing dangers, including the realization of tasks and undertakings aimed at military preparation in case of war. The aim of the following article is to present the tasks and competences in the area of protecting the President, the government, government administration officials on duty and local self-administration of the Slovak Republic. Various methods have been used to reach the pre-determined goal, primarily the method of document investigation, which made it possible to gather, sort, describe and scientifically interpret the legal acts of the Slovak Republic regarding defensive matters.

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