The Agendas of Public Administration Reforms in Lithuania: Windows of Opportunity in the Period 2004 – 2017

Abstract

The article analyses changes in the reform agendas of the Lithuanian government in the period 2004 – 2017. Instead of exploring the systemic and formal agendas of administrative reforms based on government strategies and programmes, it focuses on the institutional and actual agendas of Lithuanian authorities using a set of 20 reform initiatives. In addition to the analysis of the institutional context, we also assess a coupling logic and the exercise of political or bureaucratic entrepreneurship during reform policy making. The article finds that budgetary constraints and the reform policy priorities of the Lithuanian governments explain the ambitious agendas of administrative reforms during the 2008 – 2012 government and, to a lesser extent, during the 2016 – 2020 government. The political logic of coupling and political entrepreneurship dominated the flow of the reform process when these governments were in office, producing the top-down approach to reform policy making. In contrast, the 2004 – 2006, 2006 – 2008 and 2012 – 2016 governments relied strongly on a policy-centred logic of coupling together with bureaucratic entrepreneurship, which resulted in the bottom-up approach to administrative reforms in the country.