Crucial legislative reforms in public administration in Slovakia since 1990

The contemporary trends in the reform of public administration in Poland today are strongly influenced by international processes interacting with standards, as well as factual and pragmatic exchange factors. It already arises from this basic assumption that the 21st century requires states to broaden their range of instruments, roles and skills to achieve results in the public sphere. One of the most important issues to be resolved is the reform of Polish public administration, which is linked to the further stage of state reform, its decentralization and the continuation of local government reforms, which have not had a proper follow-up in recent years. Furthermore, in order to meet the challenges it faces, public administration should be capable of initiating and efficiently implementing innovative public programmes while ensuring the efficient and economically effective provision of public services. Of the fact that innovations and reforms – like a revolution – conducted within an existing socio-economic system result in extensive changes in all spheres of social life, the most important is the relationship between the public administration and the citizens. It constitutes a part of a complex mechanism of checks and balances, as well as being the driving force behind the change introduced in the collective interest.

This research aims to analyze the implementation of accounting reform in public administration in Portugal through three studies. The first discusses the adoption of the International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) in the public sector in developed and developing countries, identifying differences in constraints and stimuli to implementation. Through a systematic review of the literature, it was identified that there are differences between constraints and stimuli in the implementation of accounting standards between developed and developing countries. In developed countries, the lack of training stands out as the main constraint and modernization is a stimulus for the implementation of the reform. In developing countries, the greatest constraint is the limitation of financial resources, with external and internal pressure as a stimulus. The second study analyzes the factors that influence the implementation of accounting reform in central public administration in Portugal and how this implementation affects transparency in organizations. The results, obtained through questionnaires and analyzed using the structural equation model and the application of the comparative qualitative analysis of diffuse sets, show that the most important positive factor is the experience and involvement of the teams, with the involvement of professional organizations being the factor with the greatest negative impact. It was also concluded that the implementation of the accounting reform results in greater transparency in the public sector, effectively achieving one of the main objectives of the reforms driven by IPSAS. Finally, the third study analyzes the impact of the implementation of the management accounting reform on the central public administration in Portugal and how it affects control, transparency, and management reporting within these organizations. The results, analyzed using a structural equation model, show that the reform has a positive effect on increasing the quality of management reporting and the transparency of public administrations, as well as contributing positively to increased control in these organizations.

Montenegro and the EU signed the Stabilization and Association Agreement committing the country to harmonize its legislation with the EU acquis communautaire. In reference to public administration, the Agreement’s provisions emphasize the development of an efficient and accountable public administration with the goal of modernizing the Montenegrin administration in line with standards and principles of the European Administrative Space. In 2003, Montenegro adopted the PARiM Public Administration Reform Strategy 2003-2009 with two priorities: institutional and legal consolidation of the administrative system and the harmonization of the existing legislation with European and international standards (EU, CoE, UN, OSCE). However, the PARiM project met resistance and was not fully realized. The following administrative reform strategy, called Agenda of Administrative Reforms in Montenegro 2011-2016 (AURUM), states that Montenegro is determined to become part of the European system of values and that public authorities should fully harmonize the national legal framework with the acquis communautaire. In the 2016-2020 Public Administration Strategy, it was noted that AURUM had achieved limited effects and that the EU candidate countries need to establish an effective and efficient public administration. With all the drawbacks and obstacles that the public administration reform in Montenegro faced and is facing, the adoption and implementation of the new Law on Administrative Procedure (2014-2017) opened up prospects that public administration reform to be achieved on Montenegro’s road to full EU membership.

This article investigates the contribution of public administration (PA) reforms to sustainable development, with particular reference to countries in transition. The case study of Albania is analysed with a specific focus on the scope, contents and sequence of reforms as well as on the role of international institutions. The Albanian transition clearly demonstrates how development achieved without paying attention to public administration and management can be easily reversible and hardly sustainable. Open issues include building consensus on a general prioritization of PA reform agendas in transition countries and identifying more effective approaches for evaluating reform projects. Further enquiry on the first point can help avoid incoherent reform initiatives, also exacerbated by the multitude of donors financing reforms in these countries, while a better evaluation could address the declining flows of foreign aid and benefit from an increasing results-oriented approach, in recipient countries, as well as in international institutions.

This article investigates public administration reform in Kosovo by: a) analysing the extent to which an atypical transition affects administrative and governance reforms, b) examining the Europeanisation process and efforts to harmonise legislation with the European Union’s acquis communautaire as the main driving force towards a successful transition, and c) reiterating the relevance and function of the educational system in the Europeanisation process. The article addresses the following question: can the Europeanisation process be accomplished successfully when the educational system, which is limited in scale, does not manage to generate a sufficient number of Europeanisation agents? In post1999 Kosovo, public administration has been undergoing continuous reforms to detach itself from the discriminatory legacy of communist and Serbian rule, to transfer authorities from internationally established bodies to local ones, to enhance capacity-building through international assistance, and to move forward with further reforms as part of Kosovo’s EU integration efforts. Public administration reforms remain affected by past legacies, namely the atypical transition characterised by a post-WWII communist dictatorship, the Serbian apartheid-like discrimination in the 1990s, an UN-led interim administration, and challenges of capacity-building. The article concludes that without a fully consolidated and crisis-resistant democracy neither the initiated public administration reform based on the values of good governance, nor the “fair and just” distribution of resources in society have a perspective. For instance, to comply successfully with the public administration reform obligations set out in the EU’s Stabilisation and Association Agreement, Kosovo needs greater capacities and professionals serving as Europeanisation agents. As a result, much larger investments in education, research, and development appear to be paramount. An increase in the quality of education and study capacities, as well as better opportunities for social inclusion would improve the performance of public administration and enhance good governance.

Human resource management encompasses administrating and managing human resources or otherwise known as employees. The HR or Human Resources department of any company, whether it be public or private, deals with the day to aspects pertaining to employees, from the recruitment process to probably the most important aspect for any employee; remuneration and benefits. The importance of finding a perfect equilibrium between monetary and non-monetary incentives is crucial in obtaining an efficient work environment, as well as increasing productivity and employee motivation. Having an administrative background or knowledge is essential for any HR manager, in order to detect and implement the most beneficial reward system for both implicated parties. This paper aims to examine human resource reforms in public administration, primarily in reference to the remunerations of civil servants and employees by giving examples of the importance of salary within the structure of human resource management, looking at new laws involving the increase of salaries within the near future, concluding with suggestions on improving the reward system implemented by human resource managers in Romania’s system of public administration.

Although ethics underlying public administration obviously changes over time, it remains largely unknown just how, when, or why this happens. This article presents a study on organizational reform in the system of taxation in Holland around 1748. Comparative use of Max Weber's characteristics of bureaucratization provides a historical perspective on the link between organizational reform and ethical change in public tax administration and also sheds light on other contemporary issues in public management, such as a public—private distinction and the legitimacy of public administration. The case addresses important theoretical questions as well. Do organizations change existing (ethical) ideas or is it actually the other way around? How much do time and sequencing matter when explaining such historical processes? How much strategic action is involved in designing new institutions? I argue how an eclectic institutionalist approach is necessary to answer such questions in general and to increase our understanding of organizational reform in relation to changing ethics in particular, bringing into perspective all too straightforward causal links between the two.

The article examines the experience of public administration in the field of fire safety and the elimination of the consequences of natural and man-made emergencies in Japan. The author analyses the structure of public administration in a certain sphere, describes the hierarchical model of the construction of public administration in the area under consideration, describes in detail each of the hierarchical levels of the system. In doing so, the author presents the functions, responsibilities and tasks performed by each of the elements of the system of fire safety and the elimination of the consequences of natural and man-made disasters in Japan. The article discusses the regulatory framework for the activities of the relevant services and agencies established in Japan to prevent the occurrence of fires and their elimination, and to reduce the negative consequences of disasters caused by natural factors, the chances of which, according to the author are very high in Japan due to its geographical location. The author gives statistics on the number of fires, losses from them and the number of deaths in Japan over a period of time since 1992. At the same time, the author has made a statistical analysis of the given data array, which resulted in obtaining regression equations for approximating dependencies for the number of fires and deaths in those fires for the ten-year period from 2007 to 2016, which, according to the author, reflect the presence of a steady downward trend. At the same time, the author calculated the determination coefficient and described his essence and value for use in public administration. According to the author the steady tendency to reduce the number of fires and deaths is a consequence of Japan's reform of public administration in the field of fire safety, as well as the consistency, internal consistency and consistency of the legal framework governing the relevant public services as well as private companies in Japan. The author uses the method of historical parallelism when considering public administration in the field of fire safety in Japan, the USSR and, in particular, the Ukrainian SSR (before 1991) and Ukraine, after gaining independence. The article emphasizes particular importance to those parallels in reforming the system of local self-government that is being conducted in Ukraine today and the positive experience already existing in the work of the municipalities of Japan regarding the provision of fire safety and response to the various environmental challenges that are the source of emergencies of different origin. It should be noted that in spite of all the efforts of public administration and local authorities in Japan, aimed primarily at the organization of preventive measures to prevent the fires, in the said country, there are still quite large fires, but the conclusions made by the relevant state institutions, in order to prevent such a repetition in the future, are reflected almost immediately in the methodological recommendations, and the change in regulatory and regulatory regulation of some economic entities. This conclusion is achieved by the author applying case-study method of analysis of large-scale fires that have arisen in Japan in the last few years. The data obtained from the article indicated that the experience of organizing the Japanese fire service at the municipal level is appropriate and time-consuming in the conditions of decentralization and deconcentration of power in Ukraine. But at the same time the author cautions against the danger of loss of control and an increase in entropy in the process of reforming non- pockets of local self-government institutions. The author concludes that in public administration in the field of fire safety in Ukraine there are a number of unresolved problems regarding the construction of an effective security system for the protection of personality, society and the state from the current challenges associated with the emergence of fires and emergencies. In conclusion, the author focuses his research on the practical application of Japanese experience in the reform of local self-government bodies in Ukraine, as well as provides specific methodological recommendations for public administration and local government bodies regarding the implementation of the reform of the State Service of Ukraine for Emergency Situations.

Public administration represents operations and practice of the government through management, administration and implementation of government policies having in mind public interests and the society as a whole. However, analysis of the political system and public administration in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BIH) reveals that this definition is rather “modified” when it comes to the mentioned country. Even though public administration reform is one of the priorities for BIH, the reasons why it has not been more successful are post-conflict reconstruction and state building, unique political organisation as a result of a peace agreement, veto mechanisms and ethnic quotas which makes the consensus harder to achieve and delays adoption of important strategies. Even though political elite in BIH is committed to public administration reform and the key reform institutions have been established there is a lack of necessary knowledge and skills, competences and most importantly, political will. However, public administration reform definitely represents one of the key conditions for the future of BIH and its accession to the European Union (EU). Undoubtedly, public administration reform is a complex reform, and in this paper, the focus is on the case study of BIH by identifying its key issues on the way to the EU membership. This paper is based on analytical method with an explorative and descriptive purpose, comparative legal method, literature review method, and finally, synthesis of results, combined with professional insight and conclusions.

This article analyzes the administrative reforms that took place in the national governments of Portugal and Spain in the last 100 years. The shifts of administrative paradigms are the bureaucratic transition, the managerialist transition and the digital transition. The dimensions of analysis are the doctrines of the reforms; their justifications and underlying values; policy leadership, implementation styles and instruments; and resistance to change. We conducted a systematic literature review consulting 33 peer-reviewed articles on public management paradigms and 46 on administrative reforms in Portugal and Spain, and analyzed 32 official documents on the theme. The results show that the digital transition, compared with the two previous reforms, has relied on networked policy entrepreneurship, various instruments for policy change (beyond regulation), integration of values and a shift in the pattern of resistance to change. The article concludes that incremental changes occur between administrative reforms (punctuations), and the introduction of instruments inspired by one public management paradigm does not halt or replace the introduction of other instruments derived from other paradigms. Points for practitioners: Portugal and in Spain are vivid examples where public administration reforms have become more frequent and integrative of normative values. Over time, policy change leadership has moved down the organizational hierarchy and even been outsourced to external agents. Also, diversity of policy instruments has expanded, and the patterns of resistance to reforms shifted from a political/ideological type of resistance to a human/organizational type. The discursiveness of “new public governance” has ceded to the digital transformation of public administration .

The article contains an analytical survey of key reforms in public administration in Russia: administrative reform and reform of public service. All reform tools are analyzed from the point of view of "technological" approach, encouragement of public institutions development and traditional for Russia way of control of heads and authorities of executive bodies. Perspectives and success of reforms are examined through four strategies: "Inertia", "Mobilization", "Rentier" and "Modernization".

This chapter examines and discusses the approach taken by local governments in developing countries to using the Web as a means of providing e-services. In particular, we focus on the capital cities of Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries to discover whether their public administrations are using the Internet to transform how they interact with citizens through the delivery of online public sector services, thus advancing a benchmarking process. An empirical study was carried out of e-government services in these cities, focusing on the content of e-services by applying the CapGemini (2009) methodology, which has been widely used in prior research. Our findings confirm the existence of a wide variety of e-services among the cities examined, with many of these local administrations remaining unaware of the possibility of using Internet to facilitate the delivery of public sector services. Therefore, there is great scope for improvement in the field of e-government. Reforms in public administration are needed in order to make government more participative and open. Likewise, setting effective policies to ensure e-inclusion is the key to the future of LAC’s new empowered societies, with a more visible voice and more chances to express their concerns.

The development and implementation of e-government has been viewed as an opportunity to bring the much-desired reforms in public administration. There are several studies that have been conducted in the field of e-government and many projects implemented in both developed and developing countries signifying a tremendous growth in the field. However, studies show that there is a mismatch between the level of investment and the results realized so far. This has led to what some researchers refer to as the ‘e-government paradox’ that follows from the ‘productivity paradox’ earlier documented for IT projects. There are several factors that are attributable to the ‘e-government paradox’: measurement error; time lag between implementation and results; the fact that public administration and by extension e-government is driven by the need to create value for citizens and not economic value; and the mismanagement of the implementation process by e-government implementers. The measurement error has been identified as the most important factor contributing to the ‘e-government paradox’. Theories on development, implementation, measurement and evaluation of e-government are still at nascent stages of development. This study proposes the development of a citizen centric e-government evaluation model that is suitable in the context of a developing country to solve the measurement error. The study was conducted from government common citizen service (Huduma) centres in Kenya where citizens access government services. This study proposed a conceptual model that hypothesised relationships between the identified constructs. The model was tested using Structured Equation Modelling (SEM) and findings reported.

Introduction.- II. Part One: Public Policy and Administration in Iran, Turkey and Egypt.- Chapter 1. Public Administration and Policy in Contemporary Iran.- Chapter 2. State and administrative reforms in Turkey and its implications.- Chapter 3. Challenges to governance reform and accountability in Egypt.- Chapter 4. Egypt.- III. Part Two. Public Policy and Administration in Iraq, Sudan, and Saudi Arabia.- Chapter 5. Iraq: Revolutionary cul-de-sacs.- Chapter 6. Federalism and Iraq's Statehood.- Chapter 7. Iraq's Pressing Need to Obligatory Unified Conceptual and Procedural Models for Public Policy Making, Implementation, and Evaluation Processes.- Chapter 8. Distributive, Redistributive, Regulatory and Constituent Policies in Sudan.- Chapter 9. Local Governance in Saudi Arabia: The Mirage of Decentralization.- IV. Part Three. Public Policy and Administration in Bangladesh, Lebanon, Israel and Palestine.- Chapter 10. Governance Challenges in Bangladesh.- Chapter 11. Dynamic Consistency: The Public Policy Process in the Republic of Lebanon.- Chapter 12. Decentralization in Lebanon.- Chapter 13. Lebanese NGOs: Governance and Management.- Chapter 14. Culture matter: The Influence of Israeli Political Culture on The Public Policy Process.- Chapter 15. Volunteerism in nonprofit sector in Palestine.-V. Conclusion.- VI. Index

In this study, we analyze the social desirability bias related to good governance principles among public administrators. While good governance is a cornerstone in public administration reforms, the normative stance of good governance in contemporary democratic governing may provoke socially desirable survey responses among those that do not share the values. This is important to consider, because a latent resistance to good governance would indicate a risk of mission drift in promoting good governance. Using a list experiment on Finnish public administrators we estimate bias-corrected opinions on the principles of participation, government effectiveness, responsiveness, and transparency. Finland is a critical case; scoring high on international good governance rankings and serving a model for reforms, finding a bias against good governance principles among its administrators would imply that governance reforms come with the dilemma of negative opinion suppressed due to social desirability. We discover a considerable social desirability bias related to participation, responsiveness, and transparency. Our findings challenge traditional survey research and provide important considerations for researchers when studying the values and attitudes of public administrators.