Prethodno priopćenje
The Quality of Governance in Public Administration Reforms in New Democracies: Bulgaria and Romania
Katja Michalak
; Sveučilište Zeppelin, Friedrichsha - fen, Njemačka
Sažetak
Since the fall of the communist regimes in Southeastern Europe (SEE) in 1989, the democratic path many of the region’s countries had embarked upon was an uncharted road for the governments of the time. Faced with both internal and external pressures to catch up with the West, SEE governments were forced to take up the task of radically reforming the economic and political structures of their countries, as well as with restructuring their own internal ways of doing things. This paper evaluates and applies several theories of quality of governance in the context of SEE transition to democracy and European integration. The paper draws some tentative conclusions about which theories of the quality of governance are indeed applicable in SEE, and elucidates to what extent the Bulgarian and primarily Romanian governments still have to reform their administrative systems. Measures adopted for improving the quality of governance in SEE became akin to a carrot-and-stick approach for SEE governments, as the availability of much needed foreign aid to support their economies was made conditional upon reaching different milestones on the democratic path. In this transition context, reforming the public administration system proved a burdensome task, especially since some of the SEE governments viewed public administration as their own backyard and thus resisted reform pressures. Bulgaria and Romania are selected as the primary case studies because of their status of ‘slow reformers’ when compared with their neighbours in the region.
Ključne riječi
quality of governance; public administration reform; Southeastern Europe (SEE); EU conditionality
Hrčak ID:
132512
URI
Datum izdavanja:
1.6.2012.
Posjeta: 1.440 *