The Influence of Government Priorities on Public-Administration Reforms in Europe¹

Abstract

3Th e article assesses how and the extent to which political or policy priorities of European governments condition reform processes and their results in times of crisis. Th is research is based on desk research and statistical analysis of the 2013 EUPAN survey data on public-administration reform initiatives in Europe. Th e article fi nds that the place of public-administration reforms on the governmental agenda partially explains the process of public-administration reforms, but it cannot account for the variation in the (perceived) reform results. Also, the results of this research confi rm that EU-13 and (potential) candidate countries face more diffi culties in reform implementation due to a combination of comprehensive reform strategies and weak administrative capacities. If the quantitative analysis was able to uncover some broad trends common to European public administrations, more qualitative approaches (causal process-tracing and case studies) are needed to capture specific contexts and changing processes in diff erent European public administrations on which delivery progress is inevitably contingent. In order to explain why some windows of opportunities are seized while others are missed during the process of public-administration reforms, it is important to undertake process-tracing in within-case and between-case analysis and focus on causal confi gurations in the study of particular reform cases.

The Role of Accountability Arrangements in Social Innovations: Evidence from the UK and Slovakia

“…Th is has been well described by many recent studies -like Vesely (2013), Merickova and Stejskal (2014), Kattel (2015), Nakrosis (2015), Ochrana and Hrncirova (2015), Placek et al (2015) and others. It is standard in Public Economics to argue that elected politicians may serve both the public and their own private interests (Stiglitz 1989).…”

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

“…In response to these external developments, many governments in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) undertook extensive reform commitments in the form of comprehensive reform strategies that bundle various change initiatives (Nakrošis 2015). All EU member states are also obliged to prepare National Reform Programmes, which summarise the key structural reforms that are being implemented or are planned to be implemented in the framework of the European semester.…”

“…Also, the country's economy was particularly strongly aff ected by the global fi nancial crisis. To achieve fi scal consolidation, Lithuanian authorities introduced fi scal consolidation measures, including spending cuts (reduction of wages in the public sector, cutting social expenditure on maternity leave or old-age pensions) and tax increases (VAT, profi t tax, excise tax and abolition of VAT exemptions for some products and services) (Nakrošis et al 2015).…”