Review article
The Public Administration Reform Agenda in Slovenia – Two Decades of Challenges and Results
Polona Kovač
orcid.org/0000-0002-7743-0514
; Faculty of Administration, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
Abstract
In Slovenia, public administration reform has been seen mainly as a systematic set of approaches applied since the country’s independence in 1991, and in particular since 1996, when the aim was the country’s full EU membership. The reforms were designed predominantly under the influence of the New Public Management, aiming mainly at the rationalization of structures and resources, user-orientation, development of e-government, and quality management. However, they were carried out rather legalistically although formally run under several overall reform strategies from 1997 to 2010, stimulated by twofold driving forces: the inner forces and the EU or OECD incentives. The goals and activities have been partly complementary and partly in contradiction with each other due to lack of evaluation and consensus in terms of implementation, but subject
to continuous modernization and Europeanization. As for the future, public administration is not to be regarded merely as a technical tool to execute government policies, and neo-liberalistic attempts to downsize and delegate are particularly insufficient in a societal context. Thus, public administration should be developed as a factor of democracy and a pillar of good governance in society.
Keywords
reform; modernization; public administration; Slovenia; European Union; strategy; governance
Hrčak ID:
131902
URI
Publication date:
8.9.2011.
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