The Public Administration Discipline in Slovenia: Between Legal and Administrative Sciences

Th e article analyzes the historical development of public administration as a discipline in research and study programs situated between legal and administrative sciences in Slovenia as part of the Central European political and legal environment. Public administration in Slovenia was initially, and still is, primarily law-driven, but an integrative and furthermore interdisciplinary approach to public-administration studies is considered to be an inevitable trend due to its complex character. However, as indicated by the presented results of research on Slovene administrative study programs and teachers’ habilitation areas, combined with the classification of researchers’ scientific achievements, carried out in order to establish the state of the art of administrative science, research and study programs are developing rather in the framework of administrative-legal science. Hence, as grounded by historical, comparative and empirical analyses of the present study programs, habilitation and research areas in Slovenia, critical assessment of their design and classification leads us to draw several conclusions. Primarily, law is not sufficient, although, simultaneously, in the CEE area it is an indispensable basis for the study of a law-determined public administration. Both mentioned imperatives should systematically be taken into account in future (supra-) national field classifications as well as in the planning and accreditation of study programs and research in the field.

Public Administration Education in a Legalistic Setting: New Tendencies in Hungarian Public Administration and Training

Th e article examines the recent developments in public service training in Hungary and draws conclusions for the future. Hungary is considered to be part of the legalistic culture of European PA; therefore we analyze the connection between the legalistic approach as a cultural environment of PA practice and PA education as an influential factor of changing this environment. Th e empirical part of the research contains three elements: analysis of the professional training of civil service, the content of PA university training and the composition of professions within the central civil service. Th e empirical findings on these three dimensions are analyzed in light of recent structural changes of PA university education and professional training. Under a Government Decree issued in 2012, the National University of Public Services was appointed by the Government to be in charge of PA education and training. Th e university itself was recently created by the merger of law enforcement, military and civil PA universities (academies). Th is structural change can be characterized by centralization and, to a certain extent, simplification, too. Th e restructuring of PA training is completed by the concept of the Government making the fields of public service permeable, open to each other. Th e university itself is a test field for this concept since police and military students have the opportunity to study civil PA courses. Th e need for this kind of cross-learning is supported by the new phenomenon that defense and policing are gradually becoming more civilian in their character, while traditional training in these fields must undergo serious changes too. Although the article states that the basic framework of public administration education - as a major driver of public administration culture - is still dominantly legalistic, it also introduces the ways in which the new public-administration education system has tried to change the content of its degree programs and how it has attempted to have an impact on the entire public-administrative system to move from procedural orientation to a more solution-oriented mindset.

Reflections on the Distinctiveness of Public Administration as a Discipline

Th e paper discusses some issues which are relevant for the further development of Public Administration as an academic discipline. Firstly, there is reason to be skeptical about universal features of this discipline, as there is much variety in the practice of Public Administration around the world. Secondly, the orientation of Public Administration towards public values is emphasized. Th irdly, the relevance of the concept of a democratic Rechtsstaat as a starting point for the design of Public Administration content must be stressed. And finally, the paper discusses institutional issues, e.g. the question if education of future civil servants should take place at government-controlled schools or within universities.

Nothing but Trouble: Studies on the Effects of Reforms in Elderly Care in Sweden and Poland

Reforms of the public sector, conducted in the spirit of NPM since the 1990s, are frequently studied by Western and Eastern scholars. The research shows national variations in how the NPM idea was translated and adapted into a country’s context and regulations. Care for the elderly is an interesting example of reforms conducted in the spirit of NPM, because it relates to welfare and health care and to the competences of provincial and local authorities in most European countries. This paper addresses the following questions: What do we know about the reforms conducted in the spirit of NPM and its practical implication within the field of care for the elderly during 1990 - 2010? What kind of knowledge about care for the elderly is still missing and should be developed in the future ? Th is paper conducts comparative research on what is known about the effects of the Swedish and the Polish reforms regarding care for the elderly. It argues that most literature points to negative effects, but also to the fact that there are still gaps in our knowledge about the effects of reforms concerning elderly care, especially regarding its organization. Hence, despite all the research done, we do not know what kind of social and health-care services for seniors represent the best practices for the future.

School Autonomy and Leadership in Lithuania: Can School Leaders Help Schools to Take a Step forward ?

In the literature, the school leader (head of school) is considered a key figure in strengthening school autonomy and stimulating the further development of the school organization. To improve the functioning of school leaders a centralized assessment of all candidates who want to become school leaders was introduced in Lithuania in 2011. The findings of a qualitative study into the first experiences with the assessment provide a deeper understanding of current school leadership problems in Lithuania. A comparison of these findings with the literature on school leadership and the assumptions underlying the recently changed school-leader appointment procedure reveal the lack of a clear vision on school leadership. Some general management competences - such as managing and motivating people, making decisions and strategic thinking - are underdeveloped.

Agencies in Three South Eastern European Countries: Politics, Expertise and Law

Agencies are an organisational form with regulatory, expert or executive tasks that may ensure better usage of expertise compared to traditional administrative organisations. However, there are certain unintentional effects of the agency model, which are more obvious in transitional countries. Coordination and policy coherence gaps may raise the question of political accountability, provoke robust political interventions, and undermine the level of autonomy and expertise, especially where a firm legal framework does not limit the influence of politics. Another problem is the effective legal control over agencies. Traditional, bureaucratic legal procedures of internal control and courts’ supervision in certain transition countries, like those researched in the paper (Slovenia, Croatia and Montenegro), are not fully suitable and effective for agencies, opening significant room for politicisation hidden behind expertise. The recent proliferation of agencies in those countries causes many new problems of public administration and enhances old ones. Interview-based research conducted in three countries in January 2012 has the purpose to establish the main problems and issues in the functioning of agencies, especially with regard to the legal aspect of agency and politics / policy relations. Basic findings confirm the hypothesis that the agency model in those countries has not been stabilised yet. Professionalism, autonomy and expertise of the agencies are in a precarious position. The legal framework for agencies should be fine-tuned and strengthened, to ensure proper steering within the agency model.

Does Centralization Serve Efficiency ? De-Agencification in Hungary

For a long time, Hungary has been known for its quick and promising development of stable democratic institutions that made it a reference country in the CEE region during the1990s and the early 2000s. However, a series of economic crises threw light on the efficiency defects of the operations of the Hungarian public administration emerging in the late 2000s. Thus a new series of structural and operational reforms was launched recently, inspired by the current stern economic times. These reform steps can be briefly characterized by the labels of concentration and centralization affecting the entire corpus of administration. In practical terms, Hungary makes an attempt to adapt to the current economic conditions via increasing efficiency and via more effective coordination while trying to conserve the achievements of the transition period. The article briefly introduces the major changes so far and offers a rationale to understand the motives of the reform. The article examines these questions based on empirical data and research